Maybe I’m Pregnant

The best part about tonight's dinner was the glass of wine I had with it. The food smelled and looked delicious, but there was something off about every dish. These are simple recipes, so I'm not sure what I did wrong, or what I failed to do at all. Maybe I'm pregnant and it's throwing off my taste buds. (Note: I'm still a man, I can't actually be pregnant.)

To use up some leftovers I prepared a quick appetizer Asparagus and Red Pepper Salad. This was alright, I suppose. I've never really been a fan of cold asparagus, but I decided to give it a whirl again. I imagine it's my fault for preparing something that I know I don't like in the first place, but after my battle with cilantro I thought maybe it'd work out for the best. I think I better play it safe for the next week or risk losing a drive to prepare dinner at all for a while.

I was watching Everyday Italian on the Food Network and was inspired to make Broiled Polenta. Typically I don't like her show very much, but these looked easy and tasty and I've wanted to make polenta shapes, so I gave it a whirl. My First Experience with Polenta made me liken it to yellow cream of wheat, so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that it tasted very much like crispy porridge. My previous desires to create fantastic polenta dishes are disappearing with each failed attempt to impress me.

We bought a whole bunch of tomatoes when we made the Broiled Goat Cheese Tomatoes and I've been waiting for the Atkins week to be over so I could toss a bunch of them into a dish. I thought that a Red Wine and Tomato Beef Stew would be a nice, rich compliment to the polenta, but something went horribly wrong. It didn't taste good at all. Maybe it's because I'm short on patience today and didn't let it cook long enough, but nothing melded. I could still taste the sharp bite of the red wine separate from the flavors of the beef and the flavor from the garlic, onions and tomatoes didn't come through at all. It was like eating a slurry of beefy red wine.