We are back from EA and had a great time.... although I can't begin to explain how much I'm reminded that I hate jet-lag! I will most definitely update you on our trip asap.
In the mean time....
I would love to fill you in on my attempts at domestication tonight.
Every time that I go to the grocery I have great intentions to not only come home and make some fantastic meal, but to also prepare a few things that I can keep on hand for the next week or so to keep me from just grabbing a snack, running out to door in a hurry, and spending most of the day famished because I didn't give myself enough time to fix anything. Sounds ideal, but lets be honest, most things I intend to do don't pan out how I planned. I'm usually so tired by the time I get home and unload the groceries, I am lucky if I get my usual "default dinner" on the table.
Well I'm proud to say that today I half-way attained my goals. After being gone for the last 10 days, we had absolutely nothing to eat in our house, so today was a LARGE trip to the grocery. After more recent health discoveries, I absolutely have to start eating at home more and can't keep leaving the house without eating, so I had high hopes for the afternoon that included:
Cook the taco soup that we had at bunco in January (in the crock pot)
Prepare several pitchers of smoothies to freeze in cups
Make a batch of muffins
Make a large batch of pasta salad
Boil a lot of chicken to have on hand
Make the roasted chickpeas that I found on allrecipes.com in July
Wash and cut all of the fruits and veggies I bought
Okay, I know.... a little over-zealous in my aspirations. I didn't get home in time to cook the taco soup, BUT I have everything out on the counter ready to cook it tomorrow and you better believe I will! I did however cook a LOVELY dinner of 3 cheese tortellini with chicken and sauteed zucchini in alfrado sauce and salad.... and it was pretty darn good if I don't say myself! While I was cooking, Adam came in and said, "Well aren't you turning into quite the Julia Stiles!" Oh Addy. He meant Julia Child. I thought it was a cute attempt at flattery.
After we finished eating and I finished cutting up all the veggies, I decided that even if I wasn't going to accomplish my cooking goals for the day I was going to make something off of my list. So I went with the easy option and made these roasted chickpeas and pumpkin muffins.......
....as you can tell, I am no where near being near Julia Child in my cooking abilities. In fact I envy most of my friend's cooking skills, but I am definitely making progress! The chickpeas didn't turn out quite how I hoped, but are still a little tasty snack..... and no I don't have some amazing recipe to make pumpkin muffins from scratch.... they came from a Kroger brand box... (they are my favorite okay!?)... I added milk, eggs, and oil and dumped them into a muffin tin. How could you possibly screw them up? Well my muffins turned out fine, BUT I made a terrible mess in the process. A gooey, raw egg mess. I was mixing everything right next to the stove, when I attempted to crack the eggs on the side of the mixing bowl. I cracked the first one, got a lot of it on my hands, but managed to keep the shells out of the batter and most of the egg in. Then I tried to crack the second one. Epic fail. With my already gooey, slippery hands, the egg slipped out of my hand right as I cracked it on the side of the bowl..... and all went straight between the countertop and the stove. Great. I've spilled many things down the side of the stove/oven, but never felt the need to clean it up. Not eggs though. I can't imagine the smells or creatures that would emerge in the next week.
Someone out there, please tell me the trick to cracking eggs! I've googled it. Nothing has helped. Clearly I continue to make large gooey messes.
So after Adam pulled the range out from in between the cabinets, I spent the rest of the evening cleaning up egg goo.... and figured I might as well clean everything else while I was back there instead of making smoothies and pasta salad. Oh well, I can sleep tonight knowing that there isn't gooey egg glop attracting who knows what between my cabinets and oven. I'll get to the smoothies tomorrow!
Adam captured my not so exciting evening of cleaning
If you're still reading this.... sorry for my ramblings about my non-interesting night. I know I live an exciting life :) Tomorrow I will definitely blog about something MUCH more interesting.... maybe taco soup and smoothies!
Joyfully your not so skilled cooking friend,
You're house is so nice! Great story, domestic bliss!!
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