Last night I took a break to cook a new recipe for dinner. I hadn't read it all the way through first, never a good idea. Like I didn't realize it needed both arugula AND spinach. The fix for that was simple: just double the spinach. But it also called for roasting a head of garlic for an hour before you even started making the rest of the recipe. I didn't have an hour. But I do have a microwave, and I remember once, years ago, roasting a head of garlic in a microwave.
Did I remember how one did that? Of course not. I was too busy thinking about what parts I should take out and what parts I should change - not of the recipe, but of the manuscript. So I stuck the head of garlic in the microwave. Hm, if you cook it for an hour, five minutes in the microwave should be about right.
I don't know what I was thinking. Obviously, I wasn't. As I was browning the pork loin, I smelled something smoky. It still took a good minute for it to sink it. By that time, the head of garlic was basically on fire. When I took it out of the microwave, it weighed nothing - all the cloves were empty husks.
Now I know where all that garlic went to. It turned into smoke and it filled up our whole house. I've got every window and door open right now, 16 hours later. My head is pounding and my nose is too stuffed up to breath. My husband, who has much worse allergies, is much worse. Last night I tossed and turned and finally came downstairs to the computer at midnight.
And you know what? The new chapter I wrote is pretty good. But I paid a high price!
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