The Taste of Success

I just had one of the best dinners ever.

Since the fam is out to a baseball game, I had the evening to myself. I had planned on taking a practice GRE (I know, how boring) since having this place silent is quite a rarity. But by the time I reached home it was a little past seven, and I figured I should think about dinner.

This Monday I read the book "In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto" by Michael Pollan (a book I'd recommend to everyone; it's got diet advice and government gone wrong.) I won't go into the book now, but I will say in a nutshell it confirms that eating healthy (and no, things labeled "low-fat" do not constitute healthy,) is the only way to actually be healthy.

Anyways, I opened the fridge to take stock of what's available. I though of making burji, or spicy scrambled eggs with veggies. But all we had were tomatoes, scallions, garlic and basil. Not enough for burji, but those seem to be the key ingredients for pasta sauce, I thought. I pulled out some pasta and decided I was going to experiment today. Fast forward about twenty minutes and you've got a budding chef with pasta boiling on one side of the stove and the beginnings of some homemade pasta sauce simmering on the other. The thought of looking up a a recipe online crossed my mind, until I realized that would take the fun out of things.

So, I used my common sense and despite some initial reservations, ended up with a frying pan full of a bubbling red liquid. I wasn't expecting my concoction to taste like its thick, bottled, commercialized equivalent, but it was actually pretty good, with a pronounced sweetness I've never tasted in bottled sauces.

I figured, I was so far along, I might as well go all out on this dinner. I set myself a place in the formal dining room with the Thanksgiving plateware and put on the Godfather soundtrack, fitting in with my pseudo-Italian theme. I poured myself a glass of Merlot (which, let's be honest, is part of the reason why I'm so exceptionally happy with this meal right now), and began my meal with a toast to myself. I haven't exactly been feeling well the past two days,
so this self-satisfying evening was just what I needed.

Now for the most important part - the eating. A few bites in and I was pretty satisfied with myself. I think I finally understand the allure of cooking. Not only is the whole process of thinking, washing, chopping, sauteeing and ultimately setting out on the table, entertaining, but a taste of success doesn't get more delicious than this.