What a day… I can’t even begin to get into it, or I’ll never stop. Let’s just say – I’m over it…. over everything … on every possible level you can imagine.
I’m currently listing to Dolly Parton, which is another level of disgusting in itself, considering that I hate country music and recently learned that Dolly doesn’t even call or consider herself a feminist. I won’t go into that either. I’m not sure why some women think the label ‘feminist’ is a bad thing, especially in the year 2019. It simply means a person (man, woman, etc.) who wants equal rights for both men and women (and everyone in between). I guess the people who consider it a dirty term have never taken a women’s studies class in their life, and therefore associate the label with a “feminazi,” or a man-hating, non-armpit-shaving, bra-burning, lesbian straight out of 1968 (**not that that would be a bad thing to be, even if you were that person I just described…). I’m just saying – calling yourself a feminist doesn’t mean you hate men or that you shun makeup and heels in favor of cargo shorts and trips to Home Depot. It means you want equal pay, rights, and equal opportunities for all – regardless of sex, gender, or sexual orientation. I guess in Dolly’s case, even though she has a large gay fan-base, she also has to cater to her equally-as-large, republican, pro-Trump fan base too… sad.
Dolly – you really disappointed me on top of everything else that disappointed me today…
I had the shittiest dinner after the shittiest day – it was only fitting. I was so pissed off by the time I arrived home at 9pm, I had no appetite. I kind of love when that happens, but naturally I had to go and ruin it by drinking a glass of wine and it spurred my appetite into action. If I never drank alcohol, I’m pretty sure I would never be hungry. But, given my lifestyle, quitting wine isn’t really an option, unless I can take up MMA fighting or get a prescription for Klonopin…
When I finally got home, ravaged and miserable, I fed my poor little catty, who should have even three hours prior to my arrival time, and then took a bath with a generous glass of Malbec. I proceeded to electrocute my face with the NuFace, since I have been so exhausted these past few mornings that I’ve neglected to do so. When I came out of the bath, I could smell my neighbor’s cooking – and tonight it smelled like fried artichoke hearts and stuffed mushroom poppers. Suddenly, I was salivating. Instead of eating pasta at 11pm, I decided to be healthy and make a salad to satiate my unrelenting hunger:
I guess everything is sad today – because this is one of the saddest salads I’ve ever tried to make into a meal. No cheese, nuts, olives, avocados, or any sort of protein or healthy fat. The salad is mostly purple cabbage. At least the dressing is homemade and delicious – that’s the only thing this salad has going for it. Kind of like the only thing I have going for me is my cute cat.
It doesn’t really help that I also only average about 6 hours of sleep a night or less. The only time it seems like I get enough sleep is on the weekends (and only sometimes), when I can go to bed at 10pm and sleep until 9am. This happens maybe once a month now, since even weekends seem to be full of obligations and plans. I feel like I’m so haggard when I don’t sleep – I seriously feel I have aged about 6 years in the past 2.5 years given my lack of sleep.
Anyhow, enough about me and my anger and sleep deprivation. Yesterday, I made a delightful pasta with a creamy sauce made of pureed zucchini. I’m too fucking tired to write the recipe, but I’ll update tomorrow if I don’t work another 12 hour day…. JK, I’ll write it now… what’s another 20 minutes off my sleep time?
INGREDIENTS:
- Box of penne, rigatoni, or fussili
- 4 Tbs. Olive Oil
- 2 Tbs. butter
- 1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese (plus more to sprinkle on top)
- 1/2 chicken stock
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 4 small, green zucchinis, chopped up into small chunks
- 1/2 medium yellow onion, finely minced
- 6 cloves of garlic, finely minced
- 1 small carton of cherry or grape tomatoes, cut into halves
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 tsp. dried basil
- 1 tsp. dried oregano
- 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
- Fresh basil to garnish
DIRECTIONS:
- In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil (2 Tbs.) and butter over low heat
- Add in the minced onion and cook for 5 minutes over low heat, until the onions are translucent and soft
- Add in the minced garlic (about 4 cloves worth) and cook for another 3 minutes (as usual, be careful not to burn the garlic!)
- Add in the chopped zucchini and cook over medium heat, stirring frequently
- Continue to stir and cook until the zucchini is soft and fully cooked (taste test to make sure)
- Remove the zucchini from the the heat
- Place a large pot of heavily salted water on high heat and bring to a boil for the pasta
- While the pasta water comes to a boil, add the contents of the zucchini saucepan into a blender
- Add in about 1/2 cup chicken stock
- Blend over high speed until mixture is thick and saucy – there shouldn’t be any large chunks
- Return the mixture to the saucepan and turn to low heat
- Add the pasta into the pot of boiling water and cook according to time on box
- Add in the cream, salt, pepper, cayenne, dried basil and dried oregano as well as the Parmesan cheese and stir until all ingredients have combined into thick sauce
- Add additional seasoning as necessary, depending on your tastes
- Once pasta is done cooking, drain the water, and add the pasta into the sauce (or add the sauce into the pasta pot – whichever is more accommodating)
- In a clean sauce pan, add in 2 Tbs. of olive oil over low heat
- Add in another 2 cloves of minced garlic and cook for about 2 minutes
- Add in the cherry tomatoes, season with a bit more salt and pepper and cook over low-medium heat for about 6 minutes
- Add the tomatoes to the rest of the pasta/sauce once cooked through
- Top with additional sprinkle of Parmesan cheese and fresh basil leaves
I wish I had a shot of adrenaline that would be dispensed into my arm when my alarm went off tomorrow morning. But sadly the best I could muster was setting up my coffee machine so all I have to do is hit a single button. Looks like 5 hours of sleep for me tonight…. cheers.
The High Heeled C*ntessa 