Having, eating.

On Saturday, we introduced my folks and Grandma to dim sum, which was a good thing not only in that we all enjoyed it, but also in that we ate mountains of dim sum for lunch and did not have to come up with much for supper. Which is good, because on Saturday everything I cook had gone completely out of my head. It wasn't that I had forgotten how to cook. It's that I'd forgotten what to cook. I got it back yesterday morning with only minor deliberate effort, but enough of my friends have complained recently about having to come up with what to cook that I thought I would mention what I do sometimes, with an addition you could do if this is a constant problem.

( a digression on meal planning )

Every once in awhile I read an article where someone is snarking about people who blog or twitter or in any other way communicate about what they're eating, and it annoys me. People talk about food. It's a very human thing. Someone says, "I got a gorgeous branch of brussels sprouts at the store," and before you know it there are half a dozen other people trading recipes for whether you want them roasted or steamed, garlic or nuts or bacon, or else just saying to themselves quietly, "Hey, brussels sprouts, I haven't had those in a long time!" or, "I didn't realize you could do that with brussels sprouts," or even, "Brussels sprouts come on a branch?" So no, I don't update my Facebook with every meal so that you hear that I had blackberries at dinner last night and then the remainder of them at lunch today. On the other hand, they were darn good blackberries, and I had an English muffin with some of porphyrin's raspberry jam, and I had some bought pecans quick before the pecans my cousin sends me from her trees get here and we are overwhelmed with fresh gift pecans. And it is not bad for me to say I enjoyed these things, and it is not bad for you to hear it. And if it is, skip along to the next entry on your friendslist without great harm done.

I am still awfully run-down, and porphyrin says I will be awhile longer probably, but I found the time and energy to make something else in the kitchen yesterday, beyond the lamb stew and yams and blackberries that were the main part of dinner. I made chocolate castle cakes in the mini-castles pan. Then I turned them out into my second-best lasagna pan, and I poured the frosting in so they would be chocolate castle cakes in a chocolate moat. And then after the frosting was cooled I put Swedish fish along the top of the moat. Rob and Lil were pretty impressed. To tell you the truth, I was kind of impressed myself. I am mostly not that good at presentation, but I got inspired over the fish in the moat.

There was extra cake batter, so I baked it in two ramekins, and I frosted them, and I stuck each one in a Ziploc in the freezer. There will come a day when the castles are gone and one of us says, "I could really go for a piece of chocolate cake," and then there they will be, ready and waiting. Do you know what this means? It means I am having my cake and eating it too. Which is a pleasant thing.