Mom To The Rescue, But I Couln't Be Saved

Dear Tia Fia-

I love that you just stayed cozy in your house all weekend. I'm sure Peanut's cute cat chub is an excellent foot warmer. The past few weeks I too have been using my cats as warmers, friends and confidantes. I've spent so many hours in bed, under covers, and on the couch that I've brought our relationship (me and the cats) to a whole new level. I think that they are now considering me an honorary member of their pride.

The three of us, Leland, Pretty Girl Earl and me, are becoming so close that I've begun to find communication with humans difficult. Example- my mom calls me at about 1:15 p.m. yesterday. Instead of getting ready for work (which is what I'm supposed to be doing), I've got one cat on my head and one on my feet. Spending the last 10 minutes promising myself little gifts if I'd get up, I'd gone from ice cream to a pedi/mani by the time the phone rang. Then, when I heard my mom's voice, I started SOBBING. I know I given you no lead-up to explain the crying, but that's the point, there was NO reason for it. To account for my outburst, I blubber, "I've got all these veggies and I don't know what to do with them, they're so gross." My mom calmly asks what I've got and I'm all like," spaghetti squash, spinach, tomatoes, celery." And without even thinking about it she says,"just make a sauce with the tomatoes and spinach and cook the spaghetti squash and throw the sauce over it." And I'm all like,"that's genius" and I'm grumpy because I didn't think of it.

So- fast forward to later that night. I'm happily and with purpose making my tomato sauce with spinach over squash dish. And I'm doing the tomatoes just right, in fact tomatoes are one of the things I LOVE right now so I'm actually kinda enjoying this experience. I sauteed 3 diced cloves of garlic and then dumped 1 can of tomatoes in the pan. Then I added alot of olive oil, basil, oregano, salt and pepper. I let that simmer for awhile. After that I found some anchovies in the fridge, YAY! This stuff was tasting good. Time for the spinach. Rinse, chop, throw it in the pan. It's that easy, right?

Have you ever used spinach that wasn't bagged? F****! It needs something like laser removal to get all that dirt off. Right after I drop a ton of it in the pan and mix it in I take a bite. My heart drops- when I chew I can hear the grit grinding between my teeth. And then I make a decision. I still serve it to B.

This is how nice B is. He ate all of it and never said a word.
Ill-Fated Tomato Spinach Surprise.

1 Spaghetti Squash
3 cloves of garlic
1 can of tomatoes
glugs of olive oil
salt
pepper
oregano
basil
maybe some mint
maybe some anchovies
well-cleaned spinach; preferably bagged

1. To prepare the squash. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Poke holes all over the squash. Put squash in oven for 1 hour. Afterwards let squash sit until it's cool enough to touch. Cut longways in half. Scoop out the seeds. Then, take fork and scrape at meat in squash. It will shred and look a little like spaghetti.

2. For sauce: Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a pan. Use garlic press on cloves and saute them for about 30 seconds. Dump in can of diced tomatoes. Put your choice of flavorings in pan. Let simmer for about 20 minutes. At end toss in chopped spinach or whatever green you have on hand. Put on top of shredded squash. Voila. Dinner.

Love you. Gotta go.
T