Tonight is one of those rare occasions where the wife and kids are all off doing something else so it is just me and the dogs for dinner. I’ve been told before that my idea of fixing dinner for myself differs somewhat from others in my situation. I for some reason love to fix a really nice dinner… maybe it is because I don’t have to compromise anything.
Anyway, tonight I grilled a small NY Strip to a nice medium rare, also grilled some asparagus and marinated mushrooms. Topped it with some lump crab meat (blue crab) and Hollandaise sauce. I also included a baked potato with butter, which I probably really didn’t need… but it sounded (and was) good. Washed it down with a glass of 14 Hands Cabernet. I enjoyed it in front of the TV watching something stupid that my wife wouldn’t normally tolerate.
I hear from others that they usually grab a quick burger or other carry out, or throw in a frozen pizza or the like. I love my few chances to be alone, but think I may get bored and when I’m bored I love to cook.
So… what do you cook if you are in this situation?
A nice, big bowl of cereal. Tonight it was faux Cocoa Pebbles. A couple weeks ago it was some Aldi flakes with cranberries thing, a perfectly ripe banana, and what turned out to be accidental kefir. I had a cold so it took me a few bites to figure out it didn’t taste right (way too sour–I thought it might be unsweetened whole grain flakes), and when I realized it was that the milk had gone sour I was concerned it might cause distress, but my bowels loved it. I still threw it all out.
Burger. I cook ‘real’ dinners all the time. When the SO’s away, I can make myself a burger. Maybe two burgers. For some reason, the SO thinks burgers every day is unreasonable.
One time when the SO was on a medical mission, I attempted to invent the Spicy McHaggis sandwich.
I would send out for pizza, or get Chinese or Thai food, or sushi. Whatever kind I wanted! Mine! Mine! All mine!!!
Usually I end up making macaroni and cheese (radiatore with a little butter, garlic powder, and grated sharp cheddar). Doesn’t sound like much, but I’m the only one who likes it that way.
I pretty much eat “alone” every night. Since my son left, we rarely share a dinner. Maybe once a week. So I pretty much eat what I feel like eating, when I feel like eating it. Besides, my husband has turned into a food nazi and I derive very little pleasure sharing a meal with him anymore.
I would stop at the butcher shop in the old neighborhood and pick up a Spicy Italian sausage. I would grill this up and garnish it with Mancini Peppers and Sauce on a fresh brat bun, then eat it with a nice green salad and a glass of wine
When my wife is away, that almost always means I’m gonna be cooking up some extra spicy stuff. I really can’t make it otherwise, as the noxious fumes of frying habaneros or Thai chiles permeates the kitchen and dining room, and I’m acclimated to it, but anyone else anywhere within twenty feet of the frying chiles usually starts coughing uncontrollably.
