Complete and utter failure.

Most of the time when I cook something I don't think is wonderful, I can still eat it.

Tonight I had in mind a tofu and snap pea stir fry with ginger and sesame on rice noodles. It sounds like a good idea, doesn't it?

I cut the tofu into uniform blocks while heating canola oil in a skillet (whose handle is FALLING OFF! I need a new skillet.) and boiling the water for the noodles. Then I squeezed as much water out as I good and tossed it in a big bowl with some ground ginger (maybe a tablespoon... not NEARLY enough, as it turned out. I couldn't even taste it.), a splash of soy sauce, and a palmful of sesame seeds. Then I fried it in the oil until golden brown and threw in the pea pods. I wanted to drain some of the oil off, but with the handle broken and spinning in circles on me, I couldn't do it. So I decided to just say fuck it and leave the oil in. That wasn't a problem. So I cooked the pea pods and threw the noodles in for the requisite minute in the boiling water. They were tough to get out of the package and left little noodle nesty bits everywhere but cooked up very nicely. And the peas got sort of burnt, which you kind of want... you know, that tasty blistery action. But I threw in another splash of soy sauce and then they really browned. Many of the sesame seeds blackened and the tofu was dry and tasteless. The lesser-cooked peas were pretty tasty, but generally blech.

I took a few bites and then decided it was the most disgusting thing I've ever made. It was almost too salty, but not really even flavorful enough to be too salty. It needed more ginger, maybe some chili, maybe some lime juice, less oil, less heat, NO sesame seeds (they stuck to the pan, not to the food), and perhaps a real Asian cook. Erik, truly a trooper and a good sport, ate most of his, but left a few tofu chunks behind. He has been fighting a cold, so it's likely that his taste buds were not up to snuff. The house smells like smoky oil. Luckily it's uncharacteristically warm for this time of year today, so I've been able to open up a window.

Maybe tomorrow will be more successful.