Adult Spaghetti O's

As expected, Saturday was a long and strenuous night of waiting tables. And still I followed through (which, for some reason was greeted with surprise) and made us a staff meal. When I was creating the menu in my mind for this night I really thought about the things I want out of staff meal- something warm and fun, and dessert, and I went from there.

Actually, the preparation started on Friday with the creation of 36 hour cookie dough. The key to perfect chocolate chip cookies is letting the dough rest in the fridge for a while-24 to 36 hours. Saturday (perhaps the sunniest and nicest day of the year so far) I worked in my kitchen lovingly preparing tiny meatballs, fresh cherry tomato red sauce and homemade blue cheese and buttermilk dressing. My idea was to have adult spaghetti O night, but I could only find alphabet pasta so that was the downside. I made the wonderful sauce and then pureed the shit out of it, so it was thin and saucy like the canned kind. Then I added in the tiny meatballs, and finished the whole deal with shakey-can cheese. I really know how to party.
I still had 4 tables when I started pulling the meal together at work. The kitchen, I guess pretending to mimic me, started asking about dinner at like 9:15 so I knew I had to hustle. It was very stressful, but if they were trying to teach me a lesson it did not work. I got right back there, bossed people around and got the meal going. I had already made the cookie dough and the pasta sauce with balls at home- at work I needed to boil the pasta, cut the iceburg lettuce into wedges and artfully drizzle with blue cheese dressing, and bake the cookies off. Meanwhile, I also had to dazzle my customers and keep everyone happy. Somehow it all came together perfectly. All of our customers left, we pulled the tables together, and sat down as a family. It started out so nicely, with lots of gratitude and sweetness. Things turned less sweet when bodily fluids and 7-11 became the focus of conversation, but everyone shut up again once the cookies hit the table. Warm, chewy and crispy cookies with a sprinkle of sea salt on top. Try this recipe- it can actually make boys stop talking about their penises for 2 minutes.