Comfort Food and Short Work Days

As it turned out I only had to do a half day at work today. I’m about 75% thrilled, 25% annoyed by that. I am generally always happy to get out of work early, especially on a Friday - by all means let my weekend get started Friday afternoon instead of Friday evening. However there is a small part of me that cannot quite stop thinking, “I couldn’t go home and see my family for this, a stinking 4 hour day at work!” It’s not like I didn’t think there was a halfway decent chance some people would get to go home early, of course there was no guarantee I was going to be one of them, so I couldn’t really make any plans around it. If I had known for sure, I could have had my laundry done, been packed, had my car’s oil changed, and been ready to leave the cities straight from work. I had a few fleeting thoughts about quick tossing some clothes in a bag and hopping in my car for the seven hour trek back home anyway, but in the end I decided I really probably should make sure I have something to wear to work next week, and I suspect my roommate would appreciate having the dishes be washed when he gets back to the apartment on Sunday. So instead of a road trip, I’m blogging.

I realize looking over yesterday’s post I perhaps came out sounding just a bit more pathetic than I’m actually feeling. I didn’t spend the day sitting in the dark, drinking alcohol, and weeping over missed turkey dinners or any similar activities. I had a perfectly enjoyable time playing a few video games, and listening to the Theft of the Dial marathon on The Current. I also implemented the first step of my “Make This Weekend be About Comfort Food Plan” I had come up with earlier this week. I started things off pretty simply, I went with tomato soup and grilled cheese for supper. I have not had either for years, and I’ve been craving tomato soup for the last month so all in all it was an excellent substitute for the nonexistent turkey dinner leftovers.

I was about halfway to my car after getting off from work when a new step two dawned on me. I very quickly placed a to go order for some fettuccine alfredo, and a bowl of chicken and gnocchi soup from the Olive Garden down the street from my office. I’m probably going to have to rethink my supper plans however; I had planned on deciding between Annie’s Shells & Real Aged Cheddar, and Annie’s Shells & White Cheddar. Again something I haven’t eaten in years (I used to pick them up at the food co-op back in Morris), but I don’t think I’ll eat two pasta dishes on the same day. I may go with cooking up a half cup of rice (probably with some chicken or vegetable broth added for flavor), and one of those individual servings of chicken cordon bleu you can get out of a store’s frozen food section (strangely enough one of the few times I’ll willing eat ham). Alternatively I may have to go with a baked potato, the point is I have plenty of options.

Enough about food, and enough blogging, it is time for me to decide between (or probably more accurately choose an order for) anime, manga, movies, and video games. Surprisingly I have to report as a dark horse possibility I find myself actually tempted to go out shopping. This would be pretty unusual behavior for me as a basic rule-of-thumb I try and avoid retail on Black Friday (and really for as much of the Christmas shopping season as I possibly can), but for some reason I keep thinking that a trip to Best Buy, and Barnes and Noble could be rather fun.

Regardless of what I end up doing today, I bid you all a good Black Friday however you choose to spend it - be it sane or otherwise.

Another Bachelor Thanksgiving

For the second Thanksgiving in a row, I’m hanging out alone at my apartment. In many ways it is just as depressing as it sounds. I would prefer to have made the seven hour car trip to South Dakota to have Thanksgiving with my family, but as I have to work tomorrow that was impractical.

Like last year I went to my local Perkins to eat. Their turkey dinner is passable, certainly not in the same league as a proper Thanksgiving spread with friends and family, but nothing really to complain about. It certainly made me feel thankful for the Thanksgiving meals of my youth (probably not the feeling Perkins would like to invoke). Mostly it was seeing all the children there that made me feel that way. While you can spend an enjoyable time with family in most any setting, I was still quite glad I never had to settle as a child for a trip to a restaurant instead of getting an oven roasted turkey with all the accompaniments.

The alternative to my trip to Perkins, and this weekend I may still end up doing this, would be preparing the bachelor Thanksgiving meal. I did this once while I was still living in Morris. The main ingredient is picking up a broasted turkey breast from a grocery store. Everything else is just selecting what sides to go with it. When I did it in Morris, I went with carrots, potatoes, stuffing, and gravy. I boiled the potatoes and carrots until they were just shy of being done, and then arranged them around the turkey breast in a baking pan, I added some turkey broth to supply a little moisture, and finished cooking them while I was reheating the turkey in the oven. The stuffing and gravy were sad compromises as the gravy came from a jar (I shuddered while typing that) while the stuffing was made on the stove. All in all a tastier, if more expensive option then a meal at a restaurant, but it does have the benefit of leaving leftovers.

Happy Thanksgiving all.