Step Away From the Kitchen

Tonight has been one disaster after another. I should just pour myself a glass of wine and step away from the kitchen.

I have an early morning meeting tomorrow so I thought it would be nice to bring a homemade breakfast treat for everyone. My mouth watered as I read the Lemon Brioche Croissant recipe and the Meyer Lemon Curd recipe online. I thought, I can do this! I can get the ingredients right after work and be home at 6 PM, have the dough mixed and in the fridge by 7 PM to let it rise for four hours. During that time I will make the easy Lemon Curd. At 11 PM just before I go to bed I will roll out the dough and make the croissants, and be in bed by midnight. In the morning all I have to do is bake for 15 minutes before I go to work.

Yeah, well it ain’t happenin’ sweetheart. It was a nice dream, but my evening snowballed and now I want nothing to do with cooking or backing or even my favorite lime green spatula.

It took me forever to work my way through whole foods this afternoon. Everyone and their dog was there, and all the ingredients I needed were playing hide and seek with me. I had a short list for the Brioche, Lemon Curd, Pan-Seared Tuna, Yogurt Marmalade Cake and Bierocks. I walked that store a dozen times before I had everything I needed. My bill was $75 and I only had two paper bags to carry out. I was so disappointed, deflated and defeated.

By the time I got home, unloaded, walked the dogs and got back in the kitchen it was close to 7 PM. I got started on the Brioche first. Even though I had step by step instructions and pictures from cookingbread.com I still found that what I was working with looked completely different than the recipe. I had to keep adding bread flour and it was VERY sticky. I had sticky bread everywhere and I made the huge mistake of trying to take a picture to prove what a mess I had made…but I didn’t wash my sticky hands first and I think some sticky dough jammed my picture taking button. Uuuggg.

I finally got the dough mixed and in the fridge around 7:30. I was about to move onto the Lemon Curd when I received a text from Jim that he was getting off work early. He said he was having a rough night. I asked if he was hungry. He was (what a surprise) so I told him I would cook a special dinner for him. I had all the ingredients for Pan-Seared Tuna with Ginger Shiitake Cream Sauce. I was going to make this on Wednesday but I could tell Jim needed a great meal to cheer him up. I started chopping and chopping – man there are A LOT of ingredients in this sauce! But I guess that’s what makes this so OUT OF THIS WORLD GOOD. I am prepped and ready to cook (this never happens, I usually wing it as I go but I learned this lesson the hard way with my first BB Grown Up Mac and Cheese).

I heated my skillet with peanut oil and then add the tuna “SSSSssssssssssssssss” and there is the glorious sizzle. This is going to be PERFECT when Jim walks in the door in 10 minutes. The tuna will be kept warm in the oven and the sauce will just be finished. Oh, it makes me so happy and know it will cheer him up!

As soon as I finish the tuna (this only takes four mintues tops to sear) I get a message from Jim that he is still working and doesn’t know how much longer until he can leave. WHAT?!?!?!? This is a f***ing $18 piece of fish that I just seared to perfection!

FOUR MINUTES. Either I was four minutes early or he was four minutes late. But those four minutes sent me into a fit of rage and I cleaned the kitchen from top to bottom. Now here I am, it’s almost 9 PM and I have been drained of all cooking inspirations. Lemon curd? Ha! I’m picking up something from HEB in the morning.

I have a TALL glass of wine in hand (well not at this second because I’m typing) and the tuna is sitting in a 200 degree oven keeping warm. I'm sure it is ruined, dried out or whatever it does when it sits like that in the oven. The rice was already done too, it’s sitting on the stove probably getting gooey and mushy. The sauce is the only thing left to save this meal. Now how am I supposed to be cheery and positive when Jim walks in the door. He’s had a bad day, and even though it’s not his fault at all, I’m now in a bad mood. Wine. That’s the answer, more wine. Then I won’t care. (I’m half joking, don’t call AA)

Wheeew. Thanks for hanging in there through this long rant. What a messed up night.

Okay, here is me being positive… Coming this week is an awesome post on the four racks of lamb ribs I slowly braised on Sunday. I used a different run on each, so stay tuned to find out what worked and what flopped.