Tastes Better Than Rocks
Passata, meatballs and reluctant self-care
Last Wednesday, I found myself at Trader Joe’s and was delighted to see that their floral selection grew to a very respectable amount of roses. There were so many colors, but I chose to bring home the yellow, one of my favorite colors, and placed it in a glass vase on top of a white credenza that holds our knickknacks, including photobooks from our travels. This was enough of a hint for my husband, as he promptly gifted me a bigger bouquet with more flowers several days later. As you can see, I am a firm believer that actions speak louder than words.
On the same day, I found myself in charge of dinner. Now, this is the part where I admit without shame that I am not a cook. My husband is the cook. I am a baker, but not the best one yet! And so, I kept it simple by using the Ultimate Freezer Friendly Meatballs recipe from Donal Skehan, an Irish TV food personality that I follow. Easy, right?
Yes and no.
Yes, it took approximately the time the recipe called for—50 minutes. In my case, an hour. But it also didn’t exactly fit my version of “simple” as it required an ingredient that I’d never heard of called passata. So I Googled it.
Passata is basically strained tomatoes, about as glamorous as you can imagine. Through a particular process, the tomatoes are turned into a puree and has no other additives or seasonings other than a dash of salt. That’s according to Mutti, the brand I purchased at Whole Foods. Yes, it’s pricier than a standard jar of pasta sauce, but well worth it, for a sauce made with passata and a little bit of dry white wine tastes like pure luxury in a bowl.
I’m sorry to say that there are no pictures because we ate ALL of it. To top off the evening, my daughter gave me the highest compliment to a cook who isn’t really a cook.
“Your meatballs taste better than the rock meatballs at school.” - Lily, age 12
This has been a heavy carbs week for us. On Thursday, we gorged ourselves on the free pizza at Lily’s school, thanks to the Oregon Battle of Books competition (OBOB) she participated in. It was a long night, and you’d think we’d be able to make up for it on the weekends but come Sunday, we were hit with something atrocious called Daylight Savings, where we promptly lost an hour of sleep. I’m still adjusting from that experience.
My body seems to know that I’ve turned 40, because it’s not working the way it used to. After work on Monday, I discovered that I had somehow pinched a nerve in my right arm because I couldn’t move it as well as I usually could. I got on the phone with my husband to explain my dilemma and he suggested a hot shower might help. I told him I would do it. Toward the end of our convo, he also said, “We need more dog food” and that’s as good of an excuse as any to go to Target.
Target is my choice of self-care, like a girls’ weekend getaway except without the girls. Some people are tempted by casinos, some by pornography; others are moved by Jesus, but me…I am tempted by Target. Cruising the aisles and admiring everything in sight was something I used to do before having kids. Then the pandemic happened and I stopped cruising the aisles.
So when my husband said I should get dog food, I drove straight to Target and there it was—a beautiful display of spring clothing greeted me as I entered the store.
“Walk away, Hoang. Walk away,” I told myself. I also told myself, “Well, maybe I can get these cute hairclips to share with my daughter. They’re only $10.” I know. How virtuous of me.
I am happy to report that I walked out of the store with only two bags of dog food, a bag of chew bones and a spray cleaner. I feel so grown up.
Speaking of good behavior, look what these two are up to. It’s been 1 1/2 months since we brought Daisy home and they are just now getting into the groove of things. We discovered them in this position today, a very snuggly position indeed.
Delightful Discoveries of the Week
Every post, I’ll share a few delightful things that totally made my week. Here’s a few this week:
Compelling Reasons to Return to the Office
While this was a humor piece, I feel like there’s some elements of truth in it. After all, who doesn’t love the awkward in-person or in-elevator banter? And sometimes there are free donuts…I have many thoughts about in-person work, but I will reserve that for another time.
I drink a lot of tea (as in, at least two bags a day) and thus, have high standards. The closest brand I’ve ever come to love was a local favorite, based in Portland, OR (I will let you Google that one) but when I recently discovered a missing tea bag several times in their packaging and emailed to tell them about it, only to be met with zero response, I decided to look for another tea. Taylors has been around since 1886, a British family brand that’s still family owned today. Their English breakfast tea tastes rich and decadent and comforting, the way a tea should taste.
I'm glad you bought yourself some roses (and your husband did too - good man).