Tomato Paste

Yes, tomato paste. Back home, I always have several little cans of tomato paste in the pantry. It's something I know I can always reach in and grab.
Keith has been gone all weekend. He is in Plymouth and Cornwall with the students. I decided not to make this trip - I really had a lot of work to do, plus we're traveling for the next two weekends. So I have been here alone since early Friday morning.
He's had a fine time on the coast but it rained a lot, he said. He is due back around 8 p.m. I decided to have a big pot of meatball stew waiting for him when he gets home.
Meatball stew has a place of honor in our shared history. Back when we lived away from family, we had a Christmas Eve tradition. We worked for newspapers, so we always had to work on Dec. 24, usually until around 7 p.m. Then we'd go home and have a pot of meatball stew, watch "White Christmas" and "It's a Wonderful Life" and maybe open a few gifts. The recipe came from a Southern Living Soups and Stews cookbook. We associate it with good times.
For years, we only had meatball stew on Christmas Eve, but a few years ago I started making it more often. It takes a while because you have to mix up the meatballs, bake them and then add them to the stew. It's worth it though, because it is so good.
So yesterday, I walked to the store and bought meat, onion, carrots and potatoes. I had tomato paste back at the flat; I used it a while back to make spaghetti sauce.
At home, I always buy the little cans. Here. they don't sell the little cans. They sell tubes of tomato sauce. It looks like red toothpaste.
So about 3 p.m. today, I mix up the meat and bake the meatballs. Then I put my big pan on the stove, add seven cups of water and reach for the tomato paste.
Uh-oh.
Apparently, after you open the tube, you're supposed to refrigerate the paste. And you have to use in within three weeks.
I did not refrigerate the paste. And I last used it the first week in September.
That meant I had to make a mad dash to the market.
Back home, that's an inconvenience but not a real big deal. Here I grabbed my keys and my cart and walked 12 blocks to Waitrose.
A disadvantage of living on the fifth floor is that you really don't know what the weather is like until you're out in it. It's hard to tell up here. I could have made an educated guess - London in November ... probably wet and windy and cold.
Well, I didn't. I ran out with just a sweater on - no coat, no umbrella. Guess what? It was wet, windy and cold.
I walked to Waitrose - got there about 4:35. They closed at 4.
So I walked another six blocks to Somerfield, a tiny little grocery store on Old Street. I got there at 4:50. They were closing at 5. I grabbed my tube of tomato paste and started home in a steady rain.
I'm back - obviously - and the stew is simmering. I'm proud of myself - I saved dinner!