I mostly like cooking dinner.  It’s the one time of day where your creative endeavors have to bear fruit– lest you go without an actual dinner and resort to scooping up peanut butter with saltine crackers or having a potato-chip-and-air sandwich.

It’s an often humble endeavor– sometimes it’s just some pasta and a salad.  Sometimes it’s chicken soup.  Sometimes it’s a cup of soup and a sandwich, or a bowl of chili.

Sometimes it’s grandiose and elaborate– and usually appallingly deviant from the original recipe, because while I keep the house well stocked (yes, I have yellow and white corn meal; I have corn starch AND cassava starch; AND I have four different types of rice as of today, April 3rd), the recipe I pick always has something so basic, I forget it in the shuffle.

Case in point: the other day I made Sloppy Joes and instead of the plain yellow mustard, I had to substitute for the dijon– it was either that or honey dijon mustard or the one with mustard seeds in it.  Which, I have to say, gave the sauce a depth previously nonexistent in the confines of "SloppyJoeness."

Yes: I have three other types of mustard, none of which happens to be the regular one that is so good I could eat it with a spoon.

(probably because I ate the last bits of it with a spoon, come to think of it)

I’d like to believe that what I cook it’s often tasty.  Well, at least I like it and things don’t sit there, forlorn and turning mushy quickly — as well as further inedible.

_______

But sometimes, there is nothing like Chinese food.

And really, that’s it.  Some days are dark, wet, dreary and you don’t have enough in your fridge to make dinner and there is nothing quite like the savory and greasy bouquet of some kung pao chicken and some lo mein.

And some wonton soup.

And some egg rolls.

And some moo shu chicken. And moo shu pork.  And orange chicken.  And almond chicken.  And northern style veggies.  And that nest thing.  And anything coated in plum sauce.

And definitely, my favorite: sweet and sour pork.

I need a moment of silence in honor of all the delicious Chinese food I’ve ever consumed.

And I need a Tums.