So good, so good, sofrito

I finally cooked for myself! As I said, every night up to now has been a busy mess of social engagements. Last night was an equally busy mess of interpersonal tomfoolery, with the key difference being that I was the host. As you must have expected, I whipped up my guests a truly unmatched meal, that being the one I linked yesterday.

You may find yourself incredulous to hear it, but I didn't have all of the kitchen tools the recipe called for when I decided to make it. Luckily, one of my outings this week took me to the mall, where I stumbled into that miracle of marketing, Kitchen Kapers. And they provided me with precisely what I needed to prepare my sofrito:















That's the ticket! This mortar and pestle was the perfect birthplace for my delicious sazon/garlic/oil/salt/pepper paste. And when I was done making that, I slathered it all over the meat like so:














Scrumptious! As per the recipe, I poked some holes in the meat and stuffed them full of sofrito just to be safe. I wasn't able to get my hands on any pork shoulder, but I figured a pork roast should work just as well. And it did! Super tasty!

For dessert we had tostones, but I forgot to take a picture. Plantains are mouth-watering, though. I'll definitely need to use them more in my cooking. Anyway, the meal was a big hit, and my friends were profoundly shocked at my culinary abilities. Not that they're newly developed abilities or anything; I guess in the past these friends always assumed my wife was doing all of the cooking. Well, I certainly demonstrated the keenness of my abilities to those lack-wits!

Speaking of my wife, I've noticed that I haven't been sleeping as well since she left. I'm not sleeping any less, but I don't dream at all, and I have a much harder time getting up in the morning. It may have something to do with my increasingly busy social schedule keeping me out and active more often. I've certainly been lucky to be able to keep in touch with my wife -- international calling seems pretty cheap from the cell phone she purchased in Ghana, and her host family has a computer with internet access. I mean, I tried stacking up the pile of clean laundry she left unfolded into a replacement pile to fill space next to me on the bed, but it's way too colorful to pass for her.

My fatigue may simply by stress from being taken so far out of my habits, and it's really not that bad. I was kidding yesterday when I said I was lonely; I haven't really had any time to be by myself at all. Tonight I'll be hanging out with friends, and then over the weekend I'll be visiting with family. Monday night again will be spent with friends, and then probably the whole week again! In fact, despite all this hanging out with friends, there are still MORE friends clamoring to hang out with me! And several friends I need to call and make arrangements to hang out with! Seriously, things were never this busy with my wife around. Somehow working in an office provides me with more solitude than being at home!

This is most likely just another case of wanting what I can't have. After all, I was looking forward to being a social butterfly! I'll miss all this fun talky-talk time when it's gone. But life is a balance, after all, and I need to find some way to keep my competing needs in order. This bears thought, so more on it will come. Just give it time.