Birthday Brunch

Today is Dennis's birthday! I know what you're thinking, and yes, it does suck to be born on Christmas Eve. It also kind of sucks to the partner of someone born on Christmas Eve, because people born on Christmas Eve tend to hate both their birthday and Christmas. Dennis and I have created our own birthday and Christmas traditions, and he has slightly warmed to both occasions. For his birthday, I always make a big brunchy breakfast, we go to the movies, and then we have dinner at Veggie Heaven. The people at Veggie Heaven have grown accustomed to our tradition, and they usually have a gift waiting for him when we arrive.

This year my plan was to make Puttanesca Scramble and Potato Spinach Squares from Vegan Brunch.  I woke up early to start cooking so that breakfast would be ready when he got up. I starting prepping ingredients and was ready to start cooking when I realized that we didn't have any potatoes. No potatoes! And I really didn't feel like running out to the store with bedhead in my pajamas to get some. What to do, what to do? I ended up making the puttanesca tofu scramble anyway, and I dumbed the frozen spinach that I had defrosted for the squares into it. I also added some nutritional yeast and a little lemon juice, and I melted a little Daiya over the top of it all when I was done. Dennis said the smell of the food woke him up. He had no idea what I had planned for breakfast, so he wasn't disappointed that it wasn't what I had planned. He really, really liked it, and when I told him about the mess-up, he said my mess-ups are always delicious.

And speaking of mess-ups, instead of making a cake, I decided to make Dennis birthday cookies. My friend Deana brought cookies that I knew would be perfect for Dennis to my cookie swap so I asked her for the recipe. I either used the wrong shortening or let the cookies sit out too long before putting them in the oven (or both), because they came out as a big flat mess. I was able to salvage a few bits that resembled cookies from the disaster, and miraculously, they tasted really good.

So the moral of today's story is that even when you mess up a dish or don't have the correct ingredients, just use what you have and make something anyway. Don't be afraid to get into the kitchen and experiment!

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