The Beginning

Considering that I didn't get this idea until the 5th day of the new year, I'm not sure quite how it's going to work out. You wouldn't think that it would be so difficult to remember what I cooked a few days back, but in fact it is. I remember New Year's Eve, primarily because I didn't have to cook but was, as usual, treated to a sumptuous feast of ordered-in Chinese food in a tradition that had been going on for a long while before we joined the mother of one of our dear friends (and an assortment of about 40-odd relatives and friends). I particularly enjoy Chinese food when someone else orders it, because of my overwhelming tendency to always order the same several dishes and then to gaze longingly at a plate on some other table. Or is that merely the grass-is-greener phenomenon? Sometimes, as my husband can attest, I do order poorly, or else, in a fit of befuddlement (perhaps attributable to low blood sugar?), I order one thing while fully believing I have ordered something else.

But now I come to the first conundrum of this manuscript. If I fail to make an entry, will I simply skip that night and pick up on the next on (or the next that I remember), or will I attempt to reconstruct the evenings of meals I failed to chronicle? This seems like exactly the sort of conundrum that could completely prevent someone from moving forward, so I will brush it off for now. Besides, as I sat for a moment with hands poised over the keyboard a truly remarkable thought occurred to me, that I might even turn this into a blog, rather than a regular old-fashioned manuscript. Maybe the fun and hipness would make up for some of the befuddlement of my aging brain.

In any event, there was no ordering on January 1, although the kids would surely have voted for it.

So let's just move on to tonight's entrée. It was a dual preparation, something for the kids and husband, and leftovers for me -- not something I often do any more, but tonight it seemed just the thing as my poor older son, turning 9 in a few days, came down sick on the day of his birthday party sleepover. Instead of spending the day cavorting with friends at a local amusement arcade, then driving his parents batty during the sleepover portion of the party, he spent it moping around the house and mourning that it was the worst day of his life, a day that could only be fixed by receiving the right birthday presents, immediately. Well. You can imagine what I replied to that.

Of course, pizza was necessary to make him feel better. Our local Costco sells a not-half-bad and extremely inexpensive half-baked pizza. I always buy the "everything" version and then remove everything but the cheese from half of it, since the everything version is the same price as the cheese only and this way everybody gets something they like. I had a few pieces leftover in the freezer; they were the everything variety, but the kids don't beg when pizza is involved and they do have pretty adventuresome tastebuds. In case there wasn't enough, I whipped up a couple of tortilla pizzas on Trader Joe's whole wheat tortillas, spread with jarred marinara sauce and sprinkled with pre-shredded mozarella (TJ's again). And the green veggie to go with -- because I grew up in a house where there was always a green veggie, and because I do think about how to get more of them into my family -- was fresh string beans stir-fried in a little peanut and olive oil and finished with a splash of soy sauce (too much sodium? but it WAS the low-sodium kind, and it DID taste great) and left to steam for a few minutes.

Desert for the kids, who ALWAYS have to have dessert (where did they get that?!!!) was a creation of my older son's: marshmallows hollowed out, stuffed with several semi-sweet chocolate chips, and microwaved just long enough so the marshmallows puffed and the entire thing turned into a gooey, plate-encrusting mush that was as much fun to play with as it was to eat.

TORTILLA PIZZAS

2 whole wheat tortillas
Favorite tomato sauce
Shredded cheese (almost any kind will do - buy shredded or shred your own)

Spread sauce on tortillas. Top with cheese. Bake at 350 until bubbly, about 7 minutes.

STIR-FRIED BEANS

Green beans
Peanut or olive oil
Soy sauce

Cut beans into 1/2-inch lengths. Heat a little oil in pan until almost, but not quite, smoking, on medium-high heat. Add beans and stir constantly until they're bright green with a few burnt spots. Turn off heat, sprinkle with soy sauce, cover pan, and leave for 5-10 minutes.