A Tough Night

I almost succumbed to the take-out menus tonight. I have a cold, work kept me away until 7 PM, and the few ingredients we had didn’t inspire me at all. Two flounder fillets threatening to go bad in the fridge. A lone grapefruit languishing in the nearly empty fruit bin. Rice? Rolls? Quinoa? Take-out?

I’m not anti-takeout, as long as it’s only occasional. We love burritos from Los Pollitos and I craved bibimbap from the Korean place nearby until it closed.

But we ate out a couple of times over the weekend, and I really didn’t feel like dropping $20 for dinner.

So I cooked. I put two frozen dinner rolls in the oven. I lightly oiled a Pyrex dish, salted and peppered the flounder fillets, and sprinkled them with grapefruit zest. I drizzled the fish with grapefruit juice and olive oil and roasted it for about 15 minutes. Finally, I wilted some baby greens with sautéed onion, garlic, and red pepper flakes. It would do.

I will be the first to say that this meal was only passable. It was nothing outstanding and nothing memorable. But it was a homecooked dinner, and sometimes that’s the best we can do.

(P.S. - Stay tuned for my St. Patrick's Day shepherd's pie -- I'm making it over the weekend.)