I'm excited to be going to a cousin's wedding on Sunday - let's hope it doesn't rain! I can't wait to see what a lovely bride she'll be and I'm thrilled with this completion of her family. Her husband-to-be is a great guy - a true gentleman and a good father/provider. They are such a great couple and I am delighted to be a part of the day they officially commit their lives to one another.
I wish I could say that was the only reason I wanted the week to pass quickly, but as you may have picked up from recent posts, things aren't going so well at work. An image comes to mind...
Anyway, I really hit a wall last night. Well, maybe yesterday in general. Usually, I just have to give my brain/soul a little pep talk on the way to work, but my body cooperates with my efforts to force myself out of my home, onto the train, up the stairs, and into the cube farm. Yesterday, even my body rebelled and I literally had to use my arms to force my legs to carry me into the office. Yes, I do know what the word "literally" means and I do mean to use that word.
I narrowly avoided being whipped up into the Dark Clouds of the Apocalypse that chased me to the train on my way home, only to observe the hail hitting the windows once I was safely on board. I didn't think it was supposed to rain until today, so I had no umbrella. Fortunately, I found a very kind and amusingly chatty cab driver to take me home from the train station. Obviously, my plans to coerce Mister into a dinner outside at Horizons (or even just Stella) were rained out, but I had absolutely no desire to cook. At all. Possibly for the rest of my life.
In case you were wondering, this is what dinner looks like on those nights. It kind of looks like a jello mold, but with farfalle and purple cabbage, wouldn't you say? It looks about that appetizing, too. Fortunately, after a brief braise with about 1/2 cup of vegetable broth and a generous sprinkling of the Mediterranean Sea Salt, it tasted just fine.
I'll admit, though, it was kind of fun watching the perfectly molded leftovers escape the container in which they'd spent the last few days.
Tonight, though, I was perfectly and happily aware that it is Friday. I made a little deal with God toward the later part of the afternoon. It went something like this: "please don't let it rain until I have made it to the wine store and home safely." There really wasn't any "and then I'll do this for you," part, unless you want to count my silent agreement to not throw a temper tantrum on 5th Street. Fortunately, God loves me anyway; in fact, God loves me so much that it's still not raining. Maybe we can make a deal for Cousin's outdoor wedding on Sunday?
With some help from an almost-missed treasure on the bottom-most shelf of one of the foreign wine sections, I gathered the ingredients for a hearty, flavorful, and elbow-grease-intensive Pasta Puttanesca with Artichokes, from The Complete Vegan Cookbook. In addition to enlisting the assistance of my newly acquired bottle of Nederburg Pinotage (which I haven't had in about 10 years!), I got to snip some leaves off of my pretty, aromatic, kitty-seducing basil plant (which I have craftily hidden in the one windowsill he hasn't discovered yet).
I was a little worried about the contribution the artichokes would make, since I was supposed to get frozen, rather than canned (but did not). Fortunately, since the artichoke hearts were simply soaking in salt water, rather than brine or marinade, they were actually somewhat overpowered by the pungent sauce. I also used more red pepper flakes than I'm usually comfortable adding, which added a fun little kick in the throat. This was good and I can certainly see myself making this again, but at this particular moment in time, I can't think of anything that makes this sauce outstanding against many other puttanesca recipes I have.
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