sometimes you just fail

And last night for dinner, I did. Wow, was it bad. We had veggie burgers, but I decided that the gorgonzola cheese was most handy...mistake #1. Then I realized we had no ketchup and I used BBQ sauce...mistake #2. I attempted to make a pasta salad using all of the veggies that were closest to going bad, including a yellow squash, red onion, garlic scapes, and some sort of tender green. Well, the concept was good, but it failed. I added the pasta to the bowl of cut veggies thinking it would cook it just enough to make it edible. The garlic scapes were very hard and surprisingly spicy when uncooked...problem#1. The greens were way too bitter and made it unpleasant...problem #2. And for some reason, this week I have had an aversion to one of my more beloved herbs, cilantro. But I decided to try again to use it and made a cilantro vinaigrette...problem #3. Thank goodness my failures are behind me...yea right!

Veggies still left to cook in my fridge:
1 kohlrabi
1 eggplant
lb. of kale
1/2 lb. of spinach
a few carrots
garlic scapes
2-3 lb. of broccoli
lb. of snow peas
one giant 1/2 head of some Chinese cabbage
cilantro & parsley

Sounds like cabbage rolls, potstickers, and stir-fry to me.

What I hopefully did NOT fail at is planning my dad's birthday this weekend. Tomorrow he will be turning 70! I rented a boat and captain to sail my parents and hubby and I from Kent Island to St. Michael's and back. It will be a lovely day-long trip that hopefully my dad will love since you used to be an avid sailor. With any luck, the traffic coming back over the bridge won't be the worst in the world (it will be there, no doubt, just hopefully not THE WORST) and we'll have an overpriced but luxurious meal at the Wild Orchid Cafe. I'm also hoping that at some point, perhaps tomorrow, I can get him to a Cold Stone Creamery. I feel like an oversized, decadent sundae with lots of ice cream is exactly what he'd want.