Dinner for One

Being single has allowed me to discover the joys of food in a way that I don’t think I would have had time to were I in a relationship. When I was with my former boyfriend, we ate out a lot. He was constantly taking me to nice restaurants – I remember going to an exclusive Italian restaurant where he knew the owner, an exclusive French bistro… oh yeah, the eatin’ was good with him. It’s pretty much been a constant that when I’m dating someone, I can expect some nice meals.

But one of the things I love about being single is the delicious privilege of being able to treat myself to anything, anytime, wherever and whenever I want to. My priority is me, and I'm the one buying me roses. Or chicken parmigiana, as the case may be. One of the greatest things about my life right now is that I get to come home every night and cook for myself. And I don’t have to worry about whether my boyfriend likes it or not, or whether he is hogging the kitchen. Let’s get one thing clear: I love to cook. There’s something visceral and inspiring about creating an artistic work whose purpose is to titillate the senses and nourish the body. Both the process of creating it and the act of consuming it are sensual.

I’ve been researching and exploring recipes with gusto. I am both a chef and a baker, so I have been taking advantage of my lust for both dinner and dessert. A sample menu. Recently I prepared a delectable dinner of vegan chicken marsala with spicy sautéed spinach and a special brand of rice pilaf that beats all the others with a stick. I finished it off with a slice of this low-calorie, low-fat carrot cake that I swear tastes better than the real thing. The secret is applesauce instead of butter or oil and soy cream cheese icing. There’s this recipe book – Low-Calorie Desserts for Dummies, I think it’s called, or something like that. I got it a long time ago. It rocks. You can’t tell the difference for most of the desserts.

The vegan chicken marsala was made with vegan chicken cutlets that I got from Whole Foods, drenched in just a touch of flour and pan-fried in canola oil spray. After frying, I added white wine to the pan, then light butter, lemon juice, and salt. Finished it off with some parsley, made the rice pilaf, and BAM! Amazing. The sautéed spinach is always the real star, though, and made from a secret recipe passed down by my Nigerian roommate. She knows so many flavors and spices that we just don’t know here in our country, and her culinary skills should be canonized. She sexes up fresh spinach in a way that I, whom spinach normally makes vomit, eat whole bags of. She sautés it in some vegetable broth until it wilts, then adds Goya Sazon con Culantro y Achiote, half a cube of chicken bouillon, a couple of cubes of pureed garlic, onion powder, and a bit of salt. After sautéing it a bit, she adds a teaspoon or two of extra virgin olive oil, sautés it a bit more, and it is SO. GOOD.

I have been trying my hand at shrimp scampi, stir-fried Asian noodle dishes, penne in cream sauce with portobello mushrooms and peas, beefy Angus burgers dripping with melted cheese, high-quality lettuce and tomato and onion, and accompanied with a side of spicy fries, moist banana-walnut pancakes with sliced strawberries and real maple syrup… :-) And it’s not just home cookin’. I’ve been taking the liberty of treating myself to a flaky croissant or pastry when I pass a particularly exceptional-looking bakery wafting confectionary smells out towards helpless pedestrians, a salted caramel mocha every once in a while from the barista at my favorite Starbucks who does them EXCEPTIONALLY, a delectable grilled-to-perfection hot dog with onions, sauerkraut and mustard from Gray’s Papaya on 72^nd and Broadway, famous for their crisp-and-salty dogs.

Am I a shameless glutton? Not technically. I have restraint, of course. I am a mature and responsible adult, and I mind my health and my weight. But that’s no reason not to indulge whenever humanly possible. When I am faced with an exceptional culinary opportunity, I have no shame in wholeheartedly partaking in the festivities. I balance indulgence with regular healthy meals (which I make sure are culinary pleasures in and of themselves), and enjoy my life. You only go around once. And I can’t afford to wait for another boyfriend to take me out for lobster risotto.

Not when I have the pleasure of cooking it, and eating it by candlelight to the sounds of NPR, myself. :-)