Adventures in the kitchen

I have cooked and, I must say, cooked pretty well, for a long many years now. I enjoy food, and I enjoy the process of preparing food. Okay, I do have to admit that planning that menu out can be a daunting task. It seems as though you can only think of a very few dishes and that you get in a rut. This, of course, is complicated by the presence of children who tell you "I don't like that" and husbands who won't really tell you what they want and children AND husbands who seem to get in a taste rut themselves and only want you to cook like 4 dishes. BORING!!

Since this little adventure began, I have been TOTALLY blessed by some awesome friends who have kindly provided us with meals as I recover from surgery. It is exciting to get some dishes that some body else lovingly made, it really is! You didn't have to menu plan, you didn't have to think of something to make, you barely have clean up, and these sweet friends of mine are pretty doggone good cooks themselves!!

That said, I have not cooked for over a month. Oh, an occasional salad, which actually sweet Ruben is VERY good about preparing and he has some nice creative salad ideas as well! And I have opened a can of soup here and there or made a sandwich, but - really - I don't call that cooking, do you??? Even creating a quick sauce to go with some tortellini when Ruben is not here. Yeah, I guess it COULD be considered cooking, but that is super easy for me to throw together some mushrooms and spinach and sun dried tomatoes, a little this, a little that and throw it on the pasta with some EVOO. Voila! Fab and fast deliciousness.

So for the first time since before February 15th I made a pot of chili today. Our plan was, make some chili, have the kids over tomorrow for chili dogs (oh yeah with cole slaw, sauerkraut, etc.) and strawberry shortcake like mom used to make.

Allow me to digress - my mother made this FABULOUS strawberry shortcake and I will even share that it is SOOO easy. Bisquick. So you bake up these lightly sweet shortcakes and butter them and put your prepared strawberries on - oh. Heaven. It is my belief that strawberries are one of the many ways God shows us He loves us. Peaches too.

So, back to the chili.

Apparently I am trying to perfect my cajun cooking. Unbeknownst to myself. The house is just starting to smell delicious and I walk out to the kitchen where I thought my chili was simmering gently.

Not so much. Mad, ebullient processes in the chili pot. Doggone it.

I had to remove the pot from the cook surface, dip the non-cajun part into another pot, pick out the blackened segments.... Sigh.
On the upside, Ruben having his best taste abilities related to HOT & SPICY, will probably not even know. (Shh, don't tell him.)

Let's hope I can prepare the shortcakes without attempting to make them blackened!!!

ps - my Doctor called to let me know that the results of the CT Scan were in and that they were good - no apperent traces of cancer anywhere else!!