Burnt Velveeta and Other Frustrations

Background.  The Catholic Bishops of the United States have established January 22nd (or 23rd, when the 22nd is a Sunday) as a day of penance for the millions of lives lost to abortion in our country since the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade and of prayer for the legal establishment of the right to life of the unborn. I did the prayer part by attending a service at my church. That left the penance. I decided that for the penance I would forgo having the leftover chicken-rice casserole or the spareribs for dinner. Instead I'd have a very simple macaroni and cheese. Then I decided that instead of using the good cheeses in my refrigerator, I'd get some Velveeta (which makes it more of a penance since, as I pointed out to Brody, "El pueblo unido / jamas comerá Velveeta!") I toyed with the idea of livening it up with a bit of Tabasco, but decided anything to make it more tasty would violate the penitential aspect.

Burnt Velveeta.  Come dinnertime, I got out some enriched rotini which would take 10 minutes to cook and also started boiling water to cook some frozen peas. Then I started in on the Velveeta. I greased a saucepan so it wouldn't stick, sliced about 4 ounces of the product and turned on the burner. I figured it would melt fairly quickly, and I could pour it over the pasta when it was liquid. Then it occurred to me that maybe I should add some milk to thin it a bit and glanced inside the cover and found that their recipe called for butter and flour as well as milk, then baking for 20 minutes. Well, no time for that, but I did stir in some milk. The ten minutes for cooking the pasta were up so I drained them, then went back to the Velveeta sauce and found that on one side of the saucepan a brown residue was forming and sticking to the pan. I managed to blend a little of it back in before I put the rotiini into the pan and mixed them together. I put them on the plate, drained the peas, and put them on the plate, too. At the table, it seemed that the sauce was cooling and thickening too fast, so I tried to mix in the peas for added warmth. I was moderately successful. The result was edible, and it certainly did not taste bad; but it was definitely bland and unexciting — good for a penance. I'll have to keep it in mind for Lent.

Draper's Law in Action.  Many years ago my godmother, Marguerite Draper, was reminiscing with her sister and with my mother about types of undergarments that they used to get, but that were no longer available, and she pronounced what I call Draper's Law: "If it's any good, they stop making it." Recently I found a product labeled "Rice Select Texmati Rice Medley." One thing I liked about it was that I can make smaller quantities than a package of Near East rice pilaf. So while I was out buying the Velveeta, I went to get more of that Texmati Mushroom Medley. There was none in the store — not the small size jar that I had had, not the big jar, such as they had for some other Rice Select products. I'll look in a couple of other stores, but I'm afraid that Draper's law has struck again, just as it did recently for New England Coffee Four Seasons Blend.

Seth the Waiter.  (See link for other posts mentioning Seth) Back home from my shopping expedition, I was at my computer and glanced at my i-cal and saw the notation HMA, referring to a Harvard Musical Association concert and social evening. It was just recently scheduled and is the only one in my memory to ever have been scheduled for a Monday. Mondays were one of the two evenings that Seth had indicated that he worked at Scollay Square restaurant after he got his job at the State House, and I had planned to go there on Monday evening for dinner before the HMA event and say hello — since I never have occasion to go to Boston on Monday evenings. But I procrastinated on making the reservation, and finally got so involved with other things that it slipped my mind until that glance at the i-cal. I looked at the clock: 7:00 — too late even for the concert, to say nothing of dinner at Scollay Square. I don't know when I'll have another occasion to be in Boston on a Monday or Saturday evening — Seth's nights at the restaurant — and of course he probably won't work there forever. So it's possible that I've missed my last chance to see him, unless I make a trip into Boston just for that purpose. But it would have been pretty close timing to go to the prayer service and get into Boston in time for dinner preceding the concert.

Oh Well.  I must admit that these are very minor frustrations compared to the things other bloggers have had to endure; and if nothing worse happens this year, 2012 will be the best year of my life. But I hope this has given you a bit of entertainment and a little glimpse of my personality.