Thursday, October 16, 2008

On Weird Types, Curries and Cookies Sandwiches

After a bizarrely stressful day, culminating in some random man shouting at me on the street*, I arrived home tonight to find that My Beloved had made dinner. He'd started out with Sarah Kramer's Eggplant Bharta recipe, discovered we didn't have enough eggplant, combined it with an aloo concoction of some shape and description, added mushrooms and a side of chewy brown rice. And it was great. No real recipe, just good, honest, off-the-top-of-your-head kind of food. Like this:



A close up:



So to make some kind of contribution - unused as I am to having dinner fully made for me when I roll in from work - I decided to use up the chocolate-citrus cookies I'd made. Fortunately there were enough for all three of us, so I made cookie sandwiches with some Tofutti Vanilla Almond Bark Ice Cream, served with a side of fresh strawberries. Thus:



An easy, quick and fun dessert. And a way to strategically use up cookies which really need to be eaten, before I can make more!

Stay Vegan, Friends!

**************************


*OK, so here's the story. I went into Northampton to collect a bottle of my father-in-law's favourite tipple, Tio Pepe. Having parked, thrown 10c in the meter (for 12 minutes!), I made my way to the local wines/spirits store. On the way, I noticed a man having problems with 2 bags of groceries - the handle of one had broken and spilled his stuff all over the road. So, feeling like I didn't want to walk on by, I crossed over the road and asked him if he needed help. He turned to face me and said 'Are you talkin' to me??? Are you talkin' to ME???' in that kind of cinematic way. (I forget which movie it sounded like, but whatever that well-known movie was....)

I replied, 'Yes', because I was indeed talking to him....he being the one potentially in need of help.....To which he graciously replied 'Don't talk to me. Don't talk to MEEEEE! I don't talk to people!!!!!!'

And off he stalked.

'Oh, right', was pretty much all I could say in response. And then I wanted to burst into tears. Because it's pretty much been a day like that today. Full of weirdness. And silliness. And people jumping up and down about nothing at all. And questions screaming in my head along the lines of 'Why?????'

Why don't you talk to people?
Why do you eat a MacDonald's in front of me?
Why do you not see the connections?
Why don't you accept help you clearly need?
Why do you ridicule my choices?

Und so weiter. Und so fort.

4 comments:

Kelly said...

Yum. That all looks so good. I can't decide what looks better, the curry or the ice cream cookie sundae. Yummy!

Jen Treehugger said...

A song springs to mind.....
"People are strange,
When you're a stranger,
Faces look ugly
When you're alone......."

I actually burst out crying in front of a customer the other day. I felt so silly afterward but emotions are weird things.

Your beloved is ACE though. He gets the thumbs up and so do your brownies.
:)

Amanda said...

Hi Kelly and JT!

Thanks for posting comments - that was a great surprise this morning! Yes, the curry was great and the dessert was ridiculously easy. I used the recipe from the Veganomicon, I forget which page but it's towards the end of the chapter, the chocolate-walnut cookies. Instead of the walnuts, I subbed out some citrus zest - orange and grapefruit - and then just threw some Tofutti i/c in there and wedged them together. Try it - it's just the kinda thing you need to beat the crazies!

And JT - thanks for the song. You're right, emotions are weird. It had been a tough day @ work, and this guy was just the very last straw! :: smile ::

Have a great weekend, guys!

Anonymous said...

Dinner looks terrific! And how lovely to have it made FOR you :)

That man on the street needs a few lessons in manners, I'd say! Clearly, he requires pity (and then not another thought) when he can respond that way to someone offering him help.