I have been extraordinarily lazy about cooking for the last few months. During NaNo November, I always let things slide a bit, and then of course Christmas happened. So sandwiches and quick ramen concoctions were about the extent of it, with some pasta here and there, and a ham for Christmas (which we're still picking at, since Tom did the shopping, and thus we wound up with a 10lb ham).

Tom is usually very tolerant, since he is far lazier than I am about food. He'll make himself a ham and cheese and egg sandwich for breakfast/lunch, but there's plenty of times that if I'm not making anything, he'll just try to ignore his stomach and pass on eating. (I'm learning to refuse to feel guilty about this - he's as capable of making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich as I am, and I work nearly as many hours a week as he does.)

Since our current work schedules mean that he's usually picking me up from the end of my workday while on his dinner break at 9pm, we've done a looooooot of just grabbing some fast food on the way home. Not only is this not healthy, but it adds up quick, since Tom's appetite usually demands a little over a value meal combination, and if I'm hungry enough to order a full-sized meal.. So I wanted to cut back on that and spend the money better on groceries, and, biggest shocker of the year, *Tom* told me he wanted to eat a bit healthier, because the all-meat and bread and fat diet was taking a bit of a toll.

I'm still not doing very well, but the ham was a good start. I usually make up a medium-large batch of some kind of rice or noodles or something to put into my lunches every week, but, a week's worth of filling one little container in my lunchbox equates to one dinner for Tom. So, I buckled down and bought fresh veggies for once and made a huuuuuuuge pot of curry. Tom thinks it's not spicy enough, but I think he'll eat it, and I'll throw in more spice next time I reheat some for him. Curry spread over rice goes a loooong way, and it's full of potatoes which are massively filling.

Today, however, I was in the mood for really making something in the kitchen. I'd been craving some kind of flatbread to munch on, so I scrounged up a few Indian recipes. I pawed through some of the stacks of recipes that had accumulated in my email (which I neglected for most of December), considered a few things, but then decided to follow the lead of the bread, and make samosas again - since I had the whole day off, Tom had really liked them, and I hardly ever get to eat Indian food way out here in the middle of nowhere.

So, I found the recipe I'd used before, but remembered that, while Tom had thought they were amaaazing, I was pretty sure that he'd commented that the filling had been a little bland. I poked around to see what else Allrecipes had, and found a samosa recipe with a meat filling that sounded perfect. Half the comments on the recipe had issues with the dough, so I just swapped out and followed the easy way my original recipe had given (i.e., buy a box of phyllo dough).

I mixed up the dough for one of the breads, and worked on other things while it rose...but then ran out of time, so that dough is still sitting in its bowl. I hope that doesn't hurt anything, but I will not be surprised if it does. I rarely try yeast-based breads, because I have yet to get yeast to work properly for me. I don't know why. But I won't get my hopes up for this stuff.

I made up the filling for the samosas, and while that was cooking, got everything ready for the potatoes I was going to do as a side dish. (I have yet to find the recipe I'm *really* looking for, this delicious thing that I'm pretty sure was a yogurt-based potato dish I had at an Indian restaurant once.) Set aside the meat filling, cooked up the potato'n'pea dish, and while that was cooking, started putting together the samosas. Phyllo dough is ridiculously fragile stuff, so it's a bit of a laborious process to make the silly things...and I won't pretend mine were very pretty.

I'm still a complete and utter noob at deep frying things, but luckily these are pretty forgiving to work with. Got the oil just below popping temperature, and set up a short assembly line of raw samosas, sour cream + sugar (aka my sub for yogurt) + water, flour, stove. (Most of this still being in place when Tom came home later, he asked me to please not leave recipe papers sitting on top of the toaster. I gestured toward the double-layer of things I had all over the counters. "Where else do I have room??")

Ridiculously enough, I had JUST finished the deep frying, and was arranging the samosas onto a fresh plate when Tom walked in. I whipped up a quick dipping sauce of sour cream, sugar, a dash of paprika, and a lot of cilantro, then piled up plates for the both of us.

Tom doesn't usually come home on his dinner break, he grabs something from the deli or the Subway in his WalMart, or something else nearby, but having plans in mind, I told him today that if he wanted to come back tonight, I'd have something ready for him. He said he would, though he was clearly ambivalent about it.

After dinner, he stated that he felt it was important that he give me his honest opinion about the food I make, and that he thought it especially important to encourage me when something came out well. He freely admitted that he'd been a little...unenthusiastic, about coming home, debating whether to get something at Subway that would probably taste better.

But, that tonight's dinner, in all honesty, was probably the best food I'd ever made for him. He was effusive - and in detail, too, which helps me much more. I swear the boy analyzes everything, but it's that attention to detail that I think really helps us relate so well, we both have it.

I was so happy. :) Really, dinner was as much for me as for him, I wanted something different, but I also... wanted to remind, myself as well as him, that I really *can* cook when I take the time to. Every once in a great while, he lets slip that he's tired of the things I usually make, and while he's very understanding of the situations, I get tired of it too, and frustrated with myself for the culinary ruts of laziness. When we first moved into the apartment, I made a mental goal of making something new every week or two, but over time that fell by the wayside. I should pick it up again.

...I know the leftover samosas will not survive another 24 hours, but the potatoes might, and I'll have bread to nibble on, which will keep me happy for days. I get awful munchies when I hang around the house. I had Tom drop me off at the grocery store on his way to work, so I could pick up a few things, that was a little before 4.. he got home a little after 8. So it was a pretty hefty time investment. But I listened to books the whole time, and, honestly, it was an afternoon well-spent. I'm so full and content right now. :)

Recipes for the curious:
Base samosa recipe
Recipe for the samosa filling (though I substituted beef for lamb)
Aloo Matar, the potato'n'pea dish, which was pretty yummy and very easy.
Indian Sweet Bread, which I probably shouldn't have wrapped up so tightly after cooking, since they got really chewy, though still tasty.
Naan, which I'm now going to go try to finish. *crosses fingers*