Tempeh Chili or Spaghetti Bingo? That's a tough choice.

So efficient tonight. The cornbread is ready to bake, the saffron ice cream base is mixed, and I was standing there at the stove a few minutes ago stirring Mark Bittman's tempeh chili when the phone rang. (That's tempeh -- a.k.a. fermented soybean cake -- in the photo.) It was Isabel's best friend inviting her to Spaghetti Bingo at the community center. Before I had even set down the phone, my sister called, inviting Owen to. . .  Spaghetti Bingo. 

What is up with Spaghetti Bingo???? In all my years living in this fancy pants town, this is the first I've heard of Spaghetti Bingo. And tomorrow night there's a crab feed at the retirement home down the hill. A crab feed. What next, a pancake breakfast?

Bizarre. I love it! Isn't Spaghetti Bingo what they did in the Depression, when people hung together and had good values? Or was that soup lines? 

I should have scrapped dinner and gone to Spaghetti Bingo, but I'm just not spontaneous like that. So here I sit in an empty house awaiting a husband who is riding the commuter bus as I type and will be delighted beyond all measure, I'm sure, to come home to a bubbling pot of tempeh chili.