Terrible Result, But Something Had to be Done

Weeks before being admitted to the hospital, I had purchased two bricks of firm tofu. The expiration date was well into the future. I felt confident that I would use the tofu in a dish before the time-stamp indication. Into the refrigerator, the tofu went until called upon by inspiration.

When I returned from the hospital, I was greeted by a refrigerator full of "Best Used By..." products at or past their prime: milk, sour cream, pork chops, ground beef, steamed chicken, mushrooms, croissant dough, clementines--all in need (Indeed!) of some form of esculent solution. These wasting foodstuffs required some special effort; however, the milk was most simple: cereal, pancakes. I wanted something different to ingest since I had been "blanded" by six days of stringent, yet highly nutritive, delectables.

A menu change was what I desired. Anticipating a hectic week, adjusting to my revised schedule by adding the task of dressing my leg (wounded by the surgery), by altering my sleep pattern (due to a change in my medicine regimen), I was able to compose and prepare lunch and dinner menu items for the week. The results, while organized, were not as I would have liked, yet abundantly satisfactory. "Cleaning out" the refrigerator with recipe after recipe, I noticed the tofu (and the clementines). The date of expiration was nigh; the future was now! Something had to be done. What I wrought was a fiasco.

Charred Fiasco Stew

Tofu (firm, coated, marinated, fried)
  -- mustard oil
  -- sweet soy
  -- curry powder
Almonds (fried)
Dried Hot Chili
Shrimp (medium)
Peas
Rice Cake Ovals (boiled in Sea Salt)
Onion
Marinate (remaining for stew)
Soy Sauce

Charred Fiasco Stew

Slump Sump Fiasco

Clementines (boiled, peeled, pulped [liquified])
Wings (fried drumsticks [flour, salt and pepper, cayenne sauce])
Enoki and Crab Mushrooms
Rice

Slump Sump Fiasco

Having eaten my mistakes of progression, I decided to try making something less messy.

Early Easter Ham with a Mardi Gras Glaze

Potato (soaked in Sea Salt)
  -- bake, cut in half, scoop out
  -- toast shell, mash middle
  -- Boiled Carrot [bits] and Shallot [slivers]
  -- Lemon (juice)
  -- Mozzarella (cubes melted)
Ham (hunks)
  -- pressure cooked, divvy cut, baked, then broiled
  -- Marinate and Glaze: dark brown sugar, filtered water, butter, arrow root, molasses
Cabbage (pressure cooked in ham stock, chopped)

Early Easter Ham with a Mardi Gras Glaze

This dinner was not a fiasco. A triumph. Unfortunately this meal will not last in refrigeration until Easter.

Spoils!!!