Sometimes, sometimes……you just gots to take the easy way out. Somedays, the magic in the little kitchen is just rolling. I mean, *ROLLING*. I am on fie-yah, baby. I’m like Harry Potter with the Elder Wand in his hand (sorry, just finished reading The Deathly Hallows, and watched the first half of the movie over the weekend….I guess I’ve been “Potter-ized”). Everything I touch just…works. Pita bread from scratch ? But of course ! Handmade corn tortillas that would make an abuelita proud ? No hay problema ! Pierogies that would bring a tear to the eye of my Polish babushka ? Routinely ! Cookies, and cakes, and stews, and roasts, and braises, and breads…..OH MY ! I can DO that. I *DO* do that !
But somedays, (yes, I realize that’s not a real word, but its how I talk, so therefore how I write), somedays the train just doesn’t ever leave the station. The ship never sails. The horse never leaves the barn. Insert the no-go metaphor of your choice here. In other words, I’m the little engine that couldn’t in the little kitchen.
Rather than resort to the evil pizza delivery Megalopolies (which really don’t sell very good pizza, do they) or the even eviler Golden Arches, or the shame of the Blue Box ‘O’ Cheeze Goo, I go back to my neophyte cook roots, and go for the easy route and the “what can I pull out of the pantry using good quality packaged stuff” meal.
I….I….(twitch, shudder, twitch)…become…..Semi-Homemade (AARRRRRGGGGHHHH, there I’ve said it).
Confession is always such a difficult thing, isn’t it ? But so freeing once it’s out there. Now. I don’t do this often. Most days I am a firm believer in fresh and local and seasonal and scratch. Because I have come to learn that those elements make a dish taste better. Good ingredients treated respectfully and well, lead to good meals. Pretty simple equation. And now that I have the luxury of time, much more achievable than when I was working 50-plus hours a week.
But some days, quick and dirty (not to mention easy) works just groovy, and in this instance, the results are more than adequate. In fact, they’re pretty damned good.