Necessity is the mother of all invention

Not really in this case, but it was hunger...

I have been experimenting again, yes at 03:00AM. I do believe I have mentioned I am an insomniac. I did sleep for like 45 minutes between 12:00AM-ish and 01:00AM-ish. The way tonight is going that will be a full night’s sleep…but I digress.


I was hungry. I have been trying to behave myself since December…this is a personal choice and also a promise I made to a friend. I do pretty good most days. Anyway, I drink water. They say sometimes you mistake thirst for hunger. I personally think this is a crock of shit as I know when I am thirsty. Maybe I notice the thirst from all the years of sports I played as a young lad, I don’t know. I drink said bottle of water and I am still STARVING.

Hunger + Bored = Interesting Creations

I am standing at the refrigerator with both freezer and the cooler part open. (I have one of those side by side jobs.) There is a steak that needs to be cooked. I immediately think: Breakfast Burrito. I take said steak out, half it, and cut half of it into thin fajita style strips. I set this aside and turn the pan on to heat. I go back to get my tortillas. Fuck me running…I am out. I could have made eggs with the steak scrambled in, but that sounded boring. The freezer door opens again.

This is when I spy the frozen ravioli.

A light bulb comes on.

Seriously one of the bulbs in the living room has a short…

I take out a J.J. size portion of the ravioli. I set a pan of salted water to boil. At first I am thinking: Ok raviolis tossed with the steak and a little bit of cheese. Then I spy: taco seasoning! (Low sodium, of course!) My skillet is pretty hot now….I toss in ¼ cup of water and half of what is in the packet…maybe 2 tablespoons. (The packet was already open as I use taco seasoning in my eggs sometimes.) I make a little sauce out of this seasoning and water. By this time my water is boiling so I send the ravioli for a hot bath and set the kitchen timer for 7 minutes. (This is the perfect amount of time to cook ravioli in my personal opinion.)

Ravioli done: I drain it and toss the steak into the pan with the sauce concoction. I like my steak to kind of still be mooing so I turn the heat off right away. I toss the ravioli in the pan with the steak and the sauce. I dump it in a bowl, sprinkle it with a bit of cheese, and declare it my 03:30AM snack.

I take a picture of it just in case….at this point I have no clue if it is going to be edible or if it was going to go into the trash, as I go to bed hungry and dejected at my failure. I taste…Success! It is not only edible…it is quite good! At least I think it is.

Now what to call this new invention…Tacoli? Ravioco? Maybe I will think of something…maybe I will never think to make it again.

This also reminds me of this woman I attended college with. She was very Italian. She was married to a Mexican man. They lived around the corner from me and I would sometimes be invited over for meals and study sessions. Interesting food there…A cheese stuffed pasta tossed with a homemade salsa and avocado…I turned my nose up at this, but the first bite sold me. This is also the man I learned to make my salsa (J.J. Salsa will eventually make it into this blog.) from. Lupe was his name…he barely spoke English but we always managed to talk food.

The Creation!