Dinner Fail

So I left the house for the first time today at 4:05 pm - it had just stopped raining, and I figured I didn't want to spend 30 hours in a 12' X 12'  room or I might start thinking I can run along the tops of the trees outside my window a la Twilight. 

So I went to the library down the road to read there, figuring a change of scenery never hurt anyone. But I spent the entire time thinking about how amazing it would be to make a Shepherd's Pie type concoction for dinner. I had all the ingredients, and all the know-how, so what's stopping me?

Gauging from the picture (which was the final product), something clearly stopped me. And it was the kitchen. What do I miss most about my home in Toronto? Aside from Courtney - no obligation needed, I really do miss her - it would have to be my kitchen. We have done an excellent job - Court, mostly - at amassing a huge volume of kitchen gadgets and utensils, some more useless than others. And you begin to take them for granted. 

I.e. - when I go to make my Shepherd's Pie (which in my mind looks idyllic), and I find there is no potato peeler, no ceramic dish to bake it in the oven, no potato masher, and I've bought no butter, milk, or maple syrup to put in the potato's, the whole idea kinda falls to pieces. Sweet potato's never mash the same as Yukon Gold, full veggie pieces dont blend as well as pea or corn kernals, and veggie ground-round is never quite as moist as real ground beef. So maybe I didn't have all the right ingredients, after all...

I made due - a dull knife substituted for the peeler, a spatula for a masher after I boiled the piss out of the sweet potato's, no baking was possible since we had no dish, pan, or convection over, and the potato's remained without dressing. (It's a hard life, I know!) And what you see in the picture is what I am left with. Tasty enough, but not quite what I had in mind.

So maybe the tag line for this post is a little harsh: perhaps it was less a fail, than a disappointing monstrosity containing all the ingredients of a Shepherd's Pie, with none of the finesse.