Jury Dudey (Rush to Cook)

After spending the day sitting around in jury duty, I was released after 4pm and went food shopping. A friend coming over for dinner to watch the debates. Originally thinking chicken, broc, and homemade sweet potato chips...but as while wandering the market, shifted over to sausage and faro, a dish I made once in c-school. Don't remember the details, just three prime staples -- sausage, faro, and stock. No stock, got chicken broth. No faro, got millet. Italian sausages looked wan; got Chinese 5-spice sausages instead.

When I got home, poured some juices into pop molds for the wifey, then made vanilla crème anglaise for some ice cream. Have no refined cane sugar, only organic unrefined cane sugar, which is very....brown. The anglaise came out very tan, and the sugar gives it an earthy, molasses tinge -- could I call this "lightly caramelized vanilla"? Then I popped out an apple crisp, with granny smiths and more unrefined cane sugar, into the oven. Then I cleaned and chopped a mess of veg for some proper salad.


By this time it was close to 7, and the millet hadn't gotten on, the crisp was coming out, and I was on the phone with wifey. Didn't look up my old faro recipe, just winged it. On the millet package, it just says 1 cup of grain to two cups water, toast grain in butter, then add boiling water until absorbed. What I did was sear the crumbled sausage in one pan, boiled the broth in another, and toasted the grain in butter (not icky oil) .What I SHOULD have done is sweated some onion, deglazed with some booze, added some garlic THEN toasted the grain. Dropped in broth & sausage, minced red onion, minced scallion, then covered to simmer. After a while, doubled up on the broth, the grain was a lot thirstier than what the package said. Near the end, salted a bit, tossed in some minced chives for color and....didn't taste like much. Baaaaah.

ADDENDA:
BREAKFAST: 10am, 2 donuts, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Gourmet amazing 'nuts from the donut plant on my block on the way to jury duty. Had to wipe the memory of the dunkin' shmutz from my memory.

LUNCH: 1:30pm, lamb over rice, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
From a downtown street vendor, many lamb and rice options, but this one looked the cleanest. Food strictly whateva.

DINNER: 8:15pm, green salad, millet & sausage, small piece of apple crisp and vanilla ice cream, water, 1 bowl, hunger 3/5
After sampling everything while cooking, killed my hunger.