Weekend update

“Be infinitely flexible and constantly amazed.” 

Jason Kravitz

Just to get those back to school brain cells revving, here's a little riddle:

What do 

this week's menu plans

and 

this gigantic cephalopod

have in common?

Answer: They both got beached.

One of them got  the sad, stinking, ruined and rotting kind of beached, 

                                                  

And one of them got this kind of beached.

Hint: I didn't do much cooking this week.

It was a good plan, a plan full of meals and recipes that deserved another chance. Still, 80% of this week's menus floated happily out to sea about 14 hours after I arrived in Houston for a few days with my youngest son and his beautiful beloved. 

Second chances, and the delight that often accompanies them, abounded nonetheless.

From being smitten by Robert and Miranda's two second chance kitties,

Meet Angua.
From shelter to foster home to adoption.
Proof that second chances are especially sweet
 when they're given to things with big eyes and fur.

to a game I call Same Thing, Different Place.

This game involves ordering similar menu dishes from different restaurants for two nights in a row. And eating more than you ever thought you could while you watch movies and play video games. (We played it with beef and broccoli and house special lo mein from China Wok and Golden Wok in Houston, and the winner was absolutely Golden Wok. )

Golden wok has real fortune cookies!
Not  lame proverb cookies!
Winner!

In a funny turn of events, the one meal actually cooked in our Dallas home this week was such a winner that it got a second second chance in Houston.

That great chance to the second power side dish?

The Kale Caesar Salad.

I've been finding out so many interesting things about kale this week! From the edifying (this article on its amazing nutritional value) to the informative (this article on basic kale salad recipes) to the amusing (this article on how many superlatives one can fit in before the words "kale salad"). This stuff is packed so tightly with nutrients, it's like the family vacation station wagon of leafy greens. More good news: when one retries a kale salad on the same night as one retries Steak Milanesa and discovers it's stupendous tender yumminess,

the good for youness of the kale totally cancels out the
bad for youness of a Parmesan crusted, fried slice of beef.
YAY!
(actually, I am making that part up)

Major discoveries: 

1.Kale Massage. No, really.  Giving the greens an nice kneading really did make a huge difference in taste and texture. Both here and in Houston. Tried it twice, worked both times. You can take my word for it, or you can read this to learn why. 

2. Steak Milanesa! What a find! Like chicken fried steak, but lighter and tastier.

3. Anchovy paste! As some of you know, I am not ordinarily a squeamish woman. Bugs? Well, it's their planet too.  Blood? Well, in small quantities, it probably just means that you had a good time. But the fine hairlike bones that bristle from anchovy fillets can kill plans for a genuine Caesar salad as effectively as Brutus killed the salad's namesake. This is because they are grosser than spiders riding on really big cockroaches that are skittering up a kitchen wall. I'm afraid I'm rather unneutral about this.

There are rumors that sauteing the anchovy fillets in butter or oil can, in effect, melt the bones. Lots of people, including Oprah, say so, and that method deserves a chance. For now though, I'm celebrating the addition to the kitchen of this:

It was hiding among the tinned sardines and tuna
at Central Market.

This single addition lifted a simple salad dressing so far above ordinary, that I'm already combing the internet to see what else it can do! Monday and Tuesday will see me attempting a few of the things I hoped to try, then so happily slid off the schedule and into the sea, but anchovy paste, your turn is coming. 

Maybe your life, like my own, flexes day by day 

into shapes that surprise you.

I hope that this week amazes you

as it bends plans into forms more wonderful than you'd imagined.

I hope this week, that if (and almost certainly when) plans go awry,

leaving potential devastation in their wake,

 they will be balanced with moments that go exactly as planned.

Or even better than planned. 

I hope, in fact, that your week

is just beachy.