Comedy of Errors, Cauliflower Edition

There it stands, teasing me.

Tonight I live in SNAFU City. We were going to have a very normal meal of mac and cheese and a combo of baby spinach and baby kale. The mac and cheese would be a celebration of the arrival of our new stove (Thanks, Davieses!) But they couldn't install the stove after it was delivered so there is a big old box in the middle of our kitchen, and a still-broken oven.

So I thought I'd cook a pasta thing, with the cauliflower I had plus coconut milk. Nice recipe, with some cardamom and coriander. I very painstakingly cooked the cauliflower only enough to get a fork into so it wouldn't lose those nutrients. Cooked the coconut milk with the spices. While that was happening I sliced a few cloves of garlic nice and thin for the greens.

Cut up the cooked cauliflower, scooped it up from the cutting board and tossed it into the blender with the coconut milk.. Started blending. Back to the cutting board. Where's the garlic?

In the blender.

So, I swore a bunch. Tasted it. Sure enough, sharp taste of raw garlic among the cauliflower and coconut. Then thought about it. Maybe if I cooked the sauce the garlic would mellow out? Tried that. Added milk to soften the flavor a bit. When the pasta was done, I just thought, here goes nothing and tossed the sauce on it.

I put a small portion on a plate with the spinach/kale (which was awesome) and brought it up to Lindy, who is busy mailing out the Georgist Journal. I explained that the sauce was a bit...odd.

All he could smell was the cauliflower.

That's how chemo screws with our senses. It's like the garlic wasn't even there. From now on, no more sauce made out of cauliflower. I made a promise. Just cross that one right off the list.

He ate the pile of the greens with enjoyment, and I took some frozen berries out to thaw -- he is very sensitive to cold right now (it's the Oxaliplatin). I'll give him that when it's room temp, with some lightly-honeyed whipped cream and that will do us for the night.