We had our first fight this week.
Okay. It wasn't a fight. It was a spat.
A misunderstanding, rather.
And it was via text. So, I don't really think it counts.
As I've mentioned to you before, Brian is in law school.
And as I may or may not have also mentioned to you before, law school takes up quite a bit of Brian's time.
This means that, unfortunately, after we have had to go a couple of days without seeing each other...we tend to fall primarily to electronic communication.
We also both tend to get grumpy when we can't see each other.
And it turns out that we are a lot alike...we're both non-confrontational, passive aggressives.
So now that you have a clear picture of what our Wednesday-Friday was like last week...
As I usually do on Wednesday afternoons during naptime, I was watching the afternoon line-up on The Food Network during naptime and saw Giada make an herbed quinoa recipe that I thought looked really good. She made a dressing with lemon zest and olive oil and fresh herbs.
And since I was planning on making Brian dinner that night, I looked up a recipe for lemon chicken that I thought he might like. Well, as it happens, he had a lot of work to do that night and couldn't make it for dinner.
So, I was disappointed and sad that I wouldn't be able to see him, but I set my heart on making him this dinner the following night.
Well, something else came up and again we couldn't do dinner.
Again, I am non-confrontational. I hadn't told him that I was excited about making this meal for him. Instead, our conversation (texting) went something like this:
- I don't think I can make it for dinner.
- Oh, okay.
- Is that okay?
- Yea.
- Are you sure?
- Yes.
- I'm sorry...
- Ok.
- I love you.
- I love you, too.
So we spend the next couple of hours in bad moods being short with each other and not talking about the simple fact that I was disappointed for the second night in a row that I couldn't make him dinner.
Now, I'm not here to dole out relationship advice, but I can tell you that this is dumb.
So, even though on Friday night we thought about staying in and making this damn dinner...we decided to go out just the two of us and have a date night. We had, at that point, had 3 pretty lousy days.
So after a movie and a same-side-of-the-booth dinner, we were friends again, and we talked about our need for better communication, (and less texting.)
And on Saturday it was all I could do to keep Brian from staying in so that I could make this dinner for him.
Giada's recipe calls for bringing 2 3/4 cups of chicken stock, 1/4 cup of fresh lemon juice and 1 1/2 cups of quinoa to a boil and then simmering for about 15 minutes. (I used vegetable stock)
Don't stir the quinoa, and once it's ready fluff it with a fork.
For the dressing, I put:
into my kitchen Ninja food processor, (I am a kitchen ninja,) and then poured it over the cooked quinoa. (S&P to taste)
This turned out to be pretty lemony...it grew on me, but next time I think I would cut the lemon juice by half.
For Brian's chicken, I put a boneless, skinless chicken breast (halved) in 3 T of melted butter combined with 2 T of fresh lemon juice, 1 minced clove of garlic, 1/2 t of salt and 1/4 t of pepper, then into some Italian breadcrumbs, (the butter mixture is enough to do 4 chicken breasts)
Then pour some of the remaining butter mixture over the chicken in a greased, glass dish and bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes. I turned the broiler on for a few minutes at the end to make sure the top got crispy. This turned out really well, from what Brian tells me. It has been filed into my recipe box.
 |
| His |
 |
| and Hers. |
So, when life hands you lemons, make them into this delicious dinner.
Until then, I think the fact that after 150 days our only problem is that we wish we could spend every minute together is a pretty good sign.
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