One thing worked

Well, at least one thing worked out OK. I had bought two jars of raspberry jam for the turkey meatballs, misremembering how much the recipe required. So I had an unopened jar at the end of the night last night. (I made the meatballs, browned them a bit in the oven - the recipe didn't say to as it's a slow-cooker recipe, but as (a) I wouldn't have quite a full 6 hours for them to cook on low today (not without getting up EXTRA early and putting the balls and sauce in the slow cooker and (b) often times unbrowned slow cooker meatballs fall apart - I did them for 10 minutes at 400 degrees. That was probably actually enough to cook them through, as I made them about an inch in diameter.)

I made a double batch, half for a luncheon today, half for AAUW tonight. I decided to make the meatballs and sauce separately, and then combine them in the slow cooker right before turning it on.

So this morning, putting the first batch of meatballs in, I realized, hey, there's not a lot of sauce here. And I wound up having to use most of it to cover the meatballs.

Which meant I had to make a second batch of the sauce for the second set of meatballs. I didn't have enough jam left in the first jar, so I wound up using part of the second one. (Raspberry jam is not something I keep on hand, so it would have necessitated a trip out to the store for more, which would have raised a real "Wharrrrgarblllll" on my account). Everything else I needed (vinegar, cardamom, chili sauce), I would have had plenty of anyway.

So this morning I mixed up enough extra of the sauce for the second set, which, if things go not-unexpectedly, will be put in the slow cooker and start heating around 3 this afternoon.

Another thing hit me as I was working on the meatballs last night - it took longer than I planned (and I was over at school longer than planned, grading). I had been planning on also making tortillas and beans for myself for dinner. But as I closed in on cooking the last pan of meatballs, I thought, "Meh. I still need to wash my hair and do the laundry and practice some piano. Maybe I'll just fix a bowl of cereal like I did last night" (Last night being my "late" night, when my last class lets out at 7 pm).

And then I realized there was something so symbolic of what I let happen in my life to that. Here I was, making moderately "fancy" food (well, as "fancy" as I ever cook these days) for other people, and planning on feeding myself cold cereal.

I need to work better on making myself a priority. Because if I don't make myself a priority, sure as heck no one else is going to.

So I made the tortillas. (The beans were already ready).