whataya want from me?

If I could start from a decidedly non-culinary direction, I don't think I've made any secret of my love of two female vocalists.

Amy Lee of Evanescence

the incomparable P!nk

I realized something sometime in the last 48ish hours - I love them completely, equally, and for totally disparate reasons.  They each represent something I love or want to love about myself - a glorified, famous part of me.  I love Amy Lee for the ethereal beauty that she is - she looks a lot like me :) and we are both classically trained musicians.  She is rumored to be a domineering perfectionist... no comment.  P!nk, on the other hand, is the badass I want to be.  I love how raw she is and how passionately she makes each poignant point, yet with enough fire that she doesn't normally allow for the same otherworldly wallowing I find so comforting in Evanescence's music.

It all made a lot more sense in my head, so let me wrap all that up by saying that Amy Lee speaks to the part of me that is aloof, mysterious, and all too in touch with the heartbreak of this world while P!nk pulls me up by my bootstraps, kicks me in the butt and reminds me that we can take this on, as long as it's worth fighting for.

Believe it or not, this really is leading up to dinner (kind of).

Tonight I made Rice Island Casserole from Vegan on the Cheap.  

This is definitely not the first time I've made this, but sometimes, I spread my repeats so far apart that Mister forgets we've had something before.  Also, I think he somewhat depends on me taking so darn long to remake a recipe so that he doesn't have to tell me when he doesn't like dinner.

Don't get me wrong - he went back for seconds.  It might have been the second bowl that reminded him this wasn't his "favorite dinner," which is his cute little euphemistic way of saying, "I'd rather you didn't make this again."  It's also possible that he ruined his own second bowl by thinking hot sauce would be a good addition.  Either way, he got halfway through his second bowl before giving up.

I can probably take a lesson from a Sweet-n-Sour dish I made a few months ago which he helped me choose and then forgot when I served it, making a comment that he would never eat something sweet-n-sour "on purpose."  I might have even caught on by his almost violent reaction to my suggestion that I might make pineapple cupcakes for his birthday and some derogatory comment about pineapple.  I didn't, though, or I ignored it because sometimes, dinner is about what I want to eat.

In case you didn't know, P!nk actually wrote Adam Lambert's hit single "Whataya Want From Me?" and this is an incredible mash-up of the two of them singing it.  It just seemed an appropriate song considering our dinner adventures...