I'm Available For Catering

Last night's dinner did not go as planned.


I started the preparations with dessert, because really, who am I kidding? I'm fairly addicted to sweets.

There were two bananas sitting on my counter that had been headed for no-man's land for a few days, and I decided to bake a banana cake. I'm on a frugality kick right now (who isn't?) so using every last bit of food that's been purchased was very appealing. There was also some buttermilk in the fridge that was a little past it's sell by date, but I figured it's buttermilk...aka sour milk. It still smelled and looked right to me, and my mom thought it wouldn't matter too much either, so I used it.

Have I ever mentioned that I wouldn't be able to make a thing in the kitchen without my mom's advice? Yes? Well it's true.


By the time I got all the ingredients put together, I realized I didn't have enough sugar. And my bananas were on the small side so they didn't add up to the amount called for in the recipe. And all I had for shortening was some butter flavored monstrosity that's been sitting in my cupboard for so long that I'd completely forgotten about it.


No matter, I threw it all in the oven and hoped for the best. Next step: dinner.


Justin and I had watched a cooking show a few nights ago that featured a Lamb Ragu Pasta Bake thing that looked really good. Apparently, it's a Greek interpretation of lasagna. After the show was over, I decided that I could probably make a similar version, so I scribbled down a few notes about the sauce. Bechamel sauce, maybe? Is that a real thing?


We had some leftover meatballs from last week that nobody really liked very well due to the overabundance of onions. I broke them up into a pan, hoping that by browning them and cooking the onions a little longer, it would take the place of fresh ground meat. Again, I was feeling good about my non-wasteful meal plans.


What I forgot to take into account, though, was the fact that there were oats mixed into the meatballs. All went well until I added the tomato sauce to the meat mixture. Sauce + oats + meat = meaty tomato oatmeal. It resembled canned cat food. Yum.


However, we were getting too close to dinnertime and, as I had no other options, I plowed ahead. Also, the thought of wasting all that food was tormenting me. I had to make the best of it. The fallacy of escalating commitment made me do it. (That's the single item I remember from Econ 101. Although I'm sure my professor would say I'm not using it in quite it's intended capacity.)

As long as I got the pasta bake into the oven before Justin got home and saw what it looked like, we would probably be OK. The bechamel (??) sauce on top turned out delicious. It was basically a thick white sauce with parmesan cheese and it camouflaged nicely the distorted meat sauce below.


It smelled good, it looked good (as long as you were a starving person being distracted by two lively little girls), and surprisingly enough, it didn't taste anything like cat food. Score!


Best of all, Mia only gagged twice.


And my banana cake? Not very appealing in the end. I've been eating it anyway, because it's kinda sweet and soft and squishy...clearly I have my priorities straight.

If stay at home moms received paychecks, last night I'm pretty sure I would've been re-paying back taxes.

And penalties.

And then I would've gotten fired.

Happily, I work for free, so they're stuck with me.

BWAHAHAHAHA!


Wish me luck for dinner tonight - I'm trying a new fajita marinade recipe. I bought fresh ginger for the first time ever, and it's been taunting me from the counter...trying to confuse me with all it's nooks and crannies. I WILL NOT BE DETERRED!