too much soy sauce

we all know that cooking for one sucks, right?

i mean - there's no way to go to the store and buy

-half- a red pepper

1 cup of flour

just enough mushrooms to cover 1 dinner salad

society, super markets (!) have something against the solo eaters.

well,

let me tell ya

cookin' for 3 ain't no cup o'tea either!

I learned to cook in a village

over a charcoal stove

with about 5 main ingredients

beans, potatoes, onions, garlic, salt

I was told during training that when cooking - the more of #'s 3 & 4 you threw in that pot, the better.

& that's the way it was!

And even if my creative oh-what was it tonight? bean soup? bean stew? potatoes & beans? beans & potatoes? - didn't turn out just right, well shoot. who cares? I was the only one who had to eat it.

well,

when you're cooking for 3 - these rules of more, more, more or free stylin' to your taste bud delights just don't seem to cut it. no way.

tonight I wanted to curl up under the table & never come out

or crawl away like an ashamed dog, with my tail between my legs.

what was I thinking??

tonight's dinner was meant to be a veggie stirfry with tofu.

the tofu - which I'd never even prepared before didn't even turn out half-bad.

(it wasn't really half-good either though)

but the veggies,

ohmygoodness

why didn't ANYONE tell me that the veggies don't necessarily have to be drowing in the deep end of a pool of soy sauce?

why didn't ANYONE tell me it would've been okay for them to just dip their toes into a soy sauce puddle?

WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME?

2/3 a bottle later

no,

not a bottle

a JUG

a hugeass JUG later

& I can't believe my roommates even TRIED to eat the ocean of sodium slopping around their plates!

WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME?

I was so embarrassed,

they were too kind

& fortunately our friend Laura made a pretty sweet apple crumble thing I still can't even remember the name of (crumble? cobbler?? a pile of heaven on a plate?)

what was I thinking?

but again,

1st time American cooker in the kitchen - you would've thought someone would've been looking out for my (or at least *their*) best interests with a little novice supervision.

too much soy sauce

& what did I do with the left over saltly saturated veggies

& the now mostly empty JUG of soy sauce?

the veggies went for a joy ride into the rubbish bin

& as for that JUG of soy sauce

I hid it away, behind the other - much larger jugs - on top of the refrigerator

never to be seen or spoken of again.

the innocent vegetables didn't see it coming

don't be fooled

they're suffocating in sodium

(& so our our insides)

on a higher note,

my new supervisor is amazing.

today she gave me a headband she crocheted by hand

I have so many beautiful hand-made & love given gifts to keep me warm up here.

thank you!