Rotini in Katy

Today, I had whole-wheat rotini for dinner. It was homemade, with Prego spaghetti sauce, frozen green beans, a slice of bread, and homemade chocolate chip cookies for dessert. I had been reading Thomas Keller's Bouchon cookbook all day, so I was really craving some beet salad and roast chicken. It was not to be.

This meal was interesting because it emphasized the differences between how I normally eat and how normal people eat. I suppose I would consider my aunt's family to be more typical American eaters than myself. For me, the fact that the veggies were frozen, the bread came in a plastic bag sealed with a little orange twist-tie, and the altogether absence of wine felt very strange. It's interesting to see how a single meal can change so much just based on the conventions of the people who made it. For example, when I shop for pasta sauce, I try to buy one that contains only or mostly olive oil, and I prefer those made with Italian tomatoes (price permitting). I also operate on the assumption that I will go grocery shopping every day or two, so that I can make exactly what I want. Tonight, the dinner selection was basically a ploy to avoid going out and to attempt to use whatever was around. It inspires creativity, and it probably works well in a household with two busy kids, but it was definitely different.