Everyone has bad days. It's an unfortunate reality, but you are bound to have a bad day. I'm sorry.
Now there are varying degrees of bad days, and I, like many of you, have had many a bad day. But today was one of the most frustratingly bad days I've had in a long time. And most of it seems to have taken place in the first few hours of my day.
When I woke up this morning I was feeling less than stellar and very much under the weather. And I was running late for a last minute, pre-final study session. The only good thing about this is it was my last final. But it was one of my least favorite classes ever and the tests are just unpredictable and challenging for the most part- luckily today's test wasn't too bad.
Anyway, I was running late and decided to try to see if I could catch a bus to campus. As I was crossing the street I apparently forgot how to walk or something (perhaps ice, perhaps a small sprite tripped me?). And down I went, to greet my old friend The Pavement. Now I am hopelessly clumsy, especially lately (I fell last week too and hurt my shoulder). Luckily only one person saw me crash down and he was very nice and stopped to make sure I was ok. (Last time I fell only one person acknowledged me, and she looked angry, like I was disturbing her intentionally with my accidental fall.) Now here is the gross part, if you don't want to read the gross part then skip down to the next paragraph. When I fell I felt three distinct things in my ankle move apart and then sorta come back together.
I totally thought I was fine, and I really wasn't. So I hobbled back home after sitting on some steps for a while and some how made it up the stairs. I tracked down an ankle brace (I told you, I'm clumsy, plus I have bad ankles), called my school's health center to make an appointment, and called a cab. I got to campus and studied for a while before giving up. I took my test and soon it was over. Now I had to hang around on campus to have a very gross lunch with one of my friends and for my appointment. The doctor that saw me was very nice, and after asking some questions and poking at my ankle and causing further pain she told me that I had a badly sprained ankle. Now, I have sprained my ankle several times and this is the worst sprain I have ever had.
Overall my day was stressful and ruined. I can't do stairs easily so I could haul my laundry up or down the stairs to the basement to do laundry. I can barely shuffle around, so no errands for me. And little cleaning too. Normally this wouldn't be a big deal, but I am leaving tomorrow for a couple weeks to go home and I can't stand coming back to a dirty apartment. I guess I'm going to have to cope.
So after taking a nap and having a calming, ranting conversation with my best friend I was able to address a rather pressing issue. I had no food in the house. Or so I thought. I found that I had puff pastry in the freezer, cheese, blueberries, sour cream, a quarter of an onion, and some eggs. So I had dinner.
I adapted a Suzanne Goin's recipe for a spring onion tart that is deliciously rich with a ricotta/creme fraiche base loaded with onions and bacon and topped with chantal cheese, and served with an herb salad dressed lightly with lemon juice and olive oil. What I did was spread a thing layer of low fat sour cream (which hardly seems important since this is puff pastry). Seasoned that with salt, pepper, and a very restrained amount of chili flakes (mostly because I ran out). And added some moderately sliced onions and topped with shredded monterey jack cheese. I baked that in an oven around 375ish for 15-20 minutes and it was delicious. I do wish I had the herb salad to cut through the richness though. (Also, even though it seems logically that there is enough oil in the puff pastry that you don't need to grease the foil you still should, as I lost some of it to the wrathful gods of stuck on food. but as it cooled it wasn't as problematic.) That was good, but dessert was so much better!
I cut the remaining sheet into 9 squares and stretched them out a little. In a bowl I combined some of the remaining low fat sour cream, brown sugar, a cup of blue berries, salt, cinnamon, and eventually some granulated sugar. I placed a good sized dollop on each of the pieces of puff pastry (which is why some of the turnovers exploded). Using some egg I sealed them and crimped them closed with a fork. Stabbed each one so that steam could be released and brushed the top of each turnover with egg and a generous sprinkling of sugar. It was perfect.
Granted this meal is one of the farthest things from a weight conscious meal as you can get it was worth it and o so necessary. Take that MacGyver!
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