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E had a bad day. Work left him frustrated and sad, and Mr. Sunshine usually never lets work stress get him down. He had never looked so defeated as when I saw him after work, moping around in his trusty white robe. I couldn’t just make him a sandwich. I had to take him out for dinner.

Well, I could have made him a sandwich. In fact, it was my plan to cook dinner, but I had some failures of my own. I tried out the crock pot my mom gave me for Christmas for the first time. Instead of following a recipe or directions like a sensible home chef would, I browned ground beef, cut up some vegetables and tossed in wine and root beer like my homie had passed away. I put it on low and let it marinate. Eight hours later, that liquid, beefy mess tasted like Dr. Pepper. “We’re going out,” I declared.

E and I toasted to our failure of a day at Vinegar Hill House around the corner. The two of us felt so much better after pasta and a glass of wine.

This week, I had two full days of work that would keep me out well past dinner. Pizza is what moms usually order when they don’t have time to cook, so I whipped up pizza sandwiches for a quick meal in between my work duties. Good thing about these is you can make them in an assortment of ways—I made a veggie version with green peppers and black olives and a meat one for E—so I knocked a few sandwiches off of my tally.

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Babe, I forgot to tell you: black olives are on the forbidden ingredients list, too. Sorry, I know I’m difficult, but that makes this whole project more challenging and therefore rewarding!

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