Ep. 6: The one with all the standoffs
I’m like some sort of forensic detective when it comes to these posts. I can’t seem to wrap my head around what I’m writing unless I’ve already been able to unearth some sort of pattern in my thinking. Evidently, I can’t make written sense of my own thoughts or experiences without finding some sort of order to it all - some common thread (did I mention I used to be a strategist?). The thread doesn’t have to hold up in a court of law - I just need something, anything to string it all together. Last week, despite seeking a thread to pull at in the hopes of unraveling a coherent post, I didn’t find a fray to tug until Friday. It may have been a bit of a stretch, but I had it: standoffs. My week had been full of ‘em.
The pattern started on Tuesday with Max and my first notable argument. An argument that arose from a well-established standoff we’ve been having for well over a year now. We managed to navigate our way through the tense, and shitty day and are now all the better for it. Standoff disbanded! Go us! The second standoff was much more adorable and occurred during a socially-distanced stroll. A woman walking her dog began to cross the street when she caught sight of me (I do resemble a menacing character from an old Western with my intimidatingly large wool coat and bandit’s bandana covering my face, so could you blame her?), but her dog refused to join her. “This may be the cutest standoff ever.” I said. “He’s still learning how to walk.” she replied. As much as she begged, the puppy was refusing to budge. She seemed like a nice person, but I took the side of the precious pup - obvi.
The third standoff was a complete accident - I somehow managed to go an entire week without making any Alison Roman recipes. Thankfully, literally every single person on Instagram picked up the slack. While I certainly wasn’t purposely dodging Dining In, it just so happened that we didn’t cook from it. It started with emptying the fridge however we saw fit and there just weren’t any anchovies or shallots left, then we ordered a Chinese takeout feast that knocked out at least two meals, and when I did return to menu planning, I dove in to other cook’s recipes (including an amazing Spicy Chicken Stir-fry with Celery and Peanuts c/o of the one and only Molly Baz paired with Andy Baraghani’s Crispy Rice - so. good!), while unintentionally avoiding all of Alison’s. In the hopes of staying on Stuck In track we added a couple little things to the weekend menu plan.
Saturday night we were having a ‘Strong Man Competition’ with a couple of friends. Translation: we were having a mussel off - both couples were tasked with creating a mussel-centric dinner that we could enjoy together over (what turned out to be) a very lively FaceTime call. We opted to make Claire Saffitz’s Steamed Mussels with Small Potatoes accompanied by homemade crusty bread (don’t @ me for my yeast!), Alison Roman’s Perfect Asparagus cooked in her Crunchy Chili Oil, and finished off the meal with none other than #THECOOKIES. Finally! Max, as our resident cookie monster, tackled this one. They 100% lived up to the hype and it is an absolute wonder that we didn’t consume the entire batch in one, inebriated sitting.
Up this week? Something by Maangchi, Chris Morocco, another Andy Baraghani, a few more Alison Roman delicacies (oh right!), and hopefully a more harmonious (and productive) kitchen.
