Eating alone

Remember that book that was making the rounds on food blogs a few months ago: What We Eat When We Eat Alone? If left to my own devices, I could happily dine on cheese and wine every night for dinner. If I was feeling crazy, I might do the occasional salad or pasta dish (wild, I tell you!). I used to make a damn good risotto late at night after community meetings, when I was feeling particularly in need of therapeutic stirring. But meat? Nah. When eating solo, I never bother. I'm happy that I now share my dinner hour/hours-if-we're-including-beverages with someone on a daily basis, of course. And T knows his way around a baguette and wheel of brie for dinner, too, so we do have that in common. My most bird-like single Maggie meals, though? Not really looked upon with affection by my dinner companion. This doesn't really concern me. See, with their weird place in my heart standing strong, I've simply moved them over to lunchtime.

When T met me, I was post-grad but still very much living the graduate school lifestyle. I lived in an adorably tiny adobe apartment in downtown Albuquerque, just a hop, skip, and a jump away from my partners in crime and all our favorite haunts. I chose to spend my money on wine for girls' nights (and fine, the occasional shoe purchase) rather than on balanced meals. Dinners usually revolved around the many and varied things I could do with a can of garbanzo beans. There are so very many things, you know. Although T makes fun of these meals today, ignorance was bliss back then. My $1 meals enabled me to hang out with him afterward and seem a little less like a pauper than I might have otherwise. Or so I thought.

I loved those meals and that time in my life. And so at least half the week, all these years later, I really love getting out a can of chick peas for lunch. Some days I eat them old school with just salt, pepper, and a spice of choice ("am I in a cayenne mood today or is it a smoked paprika kind of afternoon?"). Other days I dress up my bowl with fresh veggies and herbs, drizzled with my favorite jalapeno olive oil. Either way, it's a me meal. It's What I Eat When I Eat Alone, and I think I always will.

Tell me: what do you eat when you eat alone?