how i spent my saturday night

it started at six, after having successfully introduced jak (the dog) to running beside my bike while leashed to it. my first goal was to try an experimental recipe for chocolate cake, which comes courtesy of karina's kitchen (the gluten-free goddess of whom i am now a devoted follower!) and can be found here. i realized (too late) that i hadn't gotten the right amount of ingredients, but decided to wing it anyway (for instance: the recipe calls for 12 oz. chocolate - i had a 4 oz. bar of 100% cacao to which i added some sugar-free coco powder. also, i didn't have almond flour - that stuff’s, like, $12 a bag! i used 'bob's red mill gluten-free all-purpose baking flour,' which has garbanzo bean flour, potato starch, tapioca flour, white sorghum flour, and fava bean flour. also - i didn't use the sugar it called for, i used one cup of agave syrup.) john (the hubby-to-be) and i are wheat-, sugar-, and dairy-free, with a few indulgences once a month or so. this was an attempt to prove (to him, to myself) that i could make a yummy dessert that wouldn't undo everything we've been working for (dietarily-speaking.) also – i wanted to be able to serve it to mixed company. (btw - the recipe is not dairy-free. to wit: the stick and a half of butter i used...)

it took me a little longer than i anticipated to make this cake (chalk it up to timidity.) i finally got it into the oven at 7:30 and then proceeded to dinner: chicken thighs with indian-esque seasonings in lentil sauce (from a can) with rice. sounds more impressive than it really is. first, i put waaaaaaay too much cardamom in the rice (we were picking it out like bugs in the barley.) second, i ran out of tinfoil to cover the pan as it simmered, so i spent most of the cook time fretting that i was going to serve underdone chicken and thus wind up spending the night in the emergency room.

despite the mishaps, miscalculations, and complete guesswork, we managed to eat (at 8:30 pm) a pretty satisfying meal. john had three helpings of cake (which turned out dense, fudgy, not too sweet, and perfect with strawberries.) we sat down to watch a few episodes of ‘the duchess of duke street,’ during which john dozed off on the sofa.

at the end of the night, i shut the tv off, escorted my drowsy honey upstairs and into his pj’s, came back down to clean the kitchen, load the dishwasher (a blessing from heaven, you have no idea…) take the dog out one last time, turn down the heat, and turn off the lights. i finally slipped into bed at about 11:30. as i lay awake listening to john’s mini-snores, i had a sudden picture of doing this for the rest of my life. that may sound like drudgery, it may sound old-fashioned and prosaic, but i tell you it’s something i never pictured for myself at any time in my life: to have someone who ate what i cooked (and actually liked it!), to have a home to cook it in, and to have the security of knowing that, if i wanted to, i could get up the next morning and do it all again.

it was a damn good saturday night.