desperate times, lacklustre recipes.

last week i flew back into the united states, only to leave 12 hours later to attend a wedding.

i flew back home last night, to a refrigerator empty of anything fresh, much less vegetables. if i had eggs, i'd have fried some. i had even run out of frozen peas!

there is always something, though. it doesn't have to be amazing, but it has to be tolerable. so this is what i made.

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bean salad.

ingredients
* several handfuls of dried lentils
* 1 can kidney beans
* 1 medium onion
* lemongrass powder
* cloves [1]
* salt and pepper and olive oil, to taste.

directions
boil the lentils in salted water, with the cloves, for 5-10 minutes. during the boil, (1) finely slice the onion while heating a non-stick pan, (2) fry the onion in olive oil, salt, lemongrass, and pepper, until it has color. drain the lentils of water and cloves, open and drain the tin of kidney beans. mix it all, dress with olive oil, and serve warm.

regrets
if i had any parsley i'd have chopped some and added it in. the same goes if i had a fresh tomato or a bell pepper or any sort of fresh veg.

oh well. sometimes one makes do.

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(readymade) frozen gyoza.

suggestion/warning
microwave them first, then quickly pan-fry them for color. this shortens the cooking time, but due to the moisture from the microwave, beware of splattering saute oil.

oh well. at least i still had some sriracha sauce around, which goes wonderfully well with these things.


[1] if i had bay leaves, i'd have used them. no luck in the pantry.