January 16, 2011

So the best laid plans. . .

I was so excited to prepare my first real dinner. Boy was I ever going to “wow” Rick with my resourcefulness, and tenacity in finding meat for dinner!!I could smell the goat meat cooking on the stove, and salivated while thinking about how delicious our meal would be. . .Let me tell ya. The anticipation was way better than the reality.

Problem #1: Rick walked into the door around 6pm and announced that an hour ago, he had eaten a meal of posho and beans with “the boys” he was working with. Big party foul. I mean, handn’t I been planning this candlelight meal since late morning when I went on a hunt  for goat meat??? Hmmm.

Problem #2: Sometimes it works to look-up recipes on the Internet, right? Where else would you go to find a recipe for cooking goat—especially given there is a food channel website??? So I found a delicious-sounding recipe. Now, maybe it was significant that I only had one of 7 ingredients that this particular recipe called for. Wait. I didn’t really have even one of the ingredients. I was substituting calamanzies for the  lime juice and thought they would work. After all, I had used them daily in the Philippines. So if a little of the juice was required, maybe I should just throw in the whole calamanzie???

Problem #3. After about an hour of “stewing,” I ventured a taste. Nuts! Bitter as can be!! The calamanzie rind, apparently, was bitter and so was my goat gravy. Okay, Sher. You are a back-packer, and you can be innovative! How would I begin to balance the “bitter?” We’ll, given a limited pantry, I decided to experiment. I sprinkled in some stevia (from home), a couple of tablespoons of peanut butter (after all–anything with peanut butter tastes good!), and some apple vinegar. Wouldn’t the vinegar mask the bitterness? Surely it would. So I confidently proceeded with the stew and added cabbage, carrots, green peppers, and a whole lotta garlic powder. I put the lid on the pan, and waited for the magic to happen.

Still waiting for the magic. IT WAS SOOOOOOO BITTER, and to make matters worse, I was the only one eating the stuff. Rick, remember was full of posho and beans. I could only manage to choke down a couple of bites before I pronounced the dinner as a Complete Failure!

So, we moved on to finish up our last dark chocolate bar, made popcorn, and went to bed. And the candles never got lit!