Evolving Into What?

I have to admit, I love that my host mom brings home strange vegetables for me to cook with.  I might never have gotten the purple potatoes, thinking that surely the boys wouldn't eat them (and in fact, the young one did not), but since she bought them I feel free to make as I please and just write it off by saying "Oh well, that's what was there! Sorry!"

One time I found a head of broccoli in the chiller that looked more like art than food, but it was on the note for dinner so I cooked it.  It turns out Romanesco Broccoli is quite tender, a sweeter, subtler variety to the "Trees" I am so used to.  And you cook it just the same.  Go figure.

So.  Purple potatoes.  Since it was leftover night I decided to add a little something because I personally hate leftover night.  It's never quite enough food (though it does clear out the fridge), and I have a general aversion to reheating meats in the microwave.  For the potatoes I found this super simple recipe and went for it.

Of course Smitten Kitchen's pictures look so much more appetizing than mine and don't seem to vary as much in color tone but she definitely forgot to document the green water.

I was a bit surprised too, when I looked in to the hard boiling water and saw water appeared to be chemical waste.  I thought about bringing the young one into to look at it's weirdness but didn't want to give him any other reason to avoid eating them.  You see how that worked.

The other thing SK didn't mention was how tricky it actually is to peel potatoes "while still warm".  That means hot, unless you really like cold food.  I am fairly certain I burnt each one of my fingerprints off and I now full understand the game "Hot Potato".

The dish received accolades from HD who is, by far, my easiest customer.  I found them a little dry, but then food in general this week has been pretty tasteless to me.  I'm sure it's one of those annoying side effects.

I thought about that at 3 a.m. when I was WIDE AWAKE.  I had almost begun to miss it - but no, no I hadn't at all.  When I was taking Cymbalta I did not succeed in get a good night sleep for a solid year.  When I decided to stop taking them that was one of the things I delighted in, before of course I crashed again.

But there are some nice things about three a.m..  Along with feeling every bone in my body and wondering why my pillows suck now but did not when I fell asleep four hours ago, I have all this time and silence to think about things in perspective.  I can think, for instance, about how terrible I was to some of my boyfriends when I was younger and how maybe I've gotten a kind of Karma with all my heart break in the past couple years.  Because wow I was a heartless mess.  

That thought is quickly followed by the list of things I still have to buy for Christmas.  Am I obliged to get my host family something? What do I get for the boys?  Will I get my bonus in time to pay for all that?  I could really go for a Toblerone right now.  Or a Kinder Surprise. Maybe I should have put more olive oil in the potatoes....