Under Pressure

My pressure cooker is definitely the most underused appliance in my kitchen.  So when I was browsing cookbooks recently at the library, a cookbook specializing in pressure cooker recipes caught my eye.  We chose three recipes for the menu this week:

Pot Roast with Potatoes

By and far the best recipe of the three, but definitely took the most time to prepare.  It was a good choice for a  Sunday night dinner, and had lots of great flavor.



Enchilada-Glazed Chicken Tacos

This made a tasty, saucy shredded chicken, which we served with flour tortillas, rice and beans and for the grown-ups, sliced avocado.  (Though the kids can try this whenever they like!)
However tasty it was, though, my taco completely fell apart.  Leftovers were taco "bowls" with all the fixings.


Pork Chops with Buttery Apples served over Shaved Brussels Sprouts

This was definitely the worst recipe of the three.  Overdone pork, apples turned to mushy sauce, and watery shaved Brussels sprouts.  Brian and I each ate a bit and it did little more than "fill the belly."  All leftovers were promptly discarded and we tried to forget the sadness of this recipe.


So....thoughts on pressure cookers.

1.  The "browning" feature?  It doesn't really brown, at least not as well as on the stovetop.

2.  I didn't find any of these recipes to be a huge timesaver.  The pot roast recipe took about three hours.  Which, I guess, is a timesaver compared to how long it takes to make a pot roast and potatoes in the oven.

That being said, I'd still try some different recipes with the pressure cooker.  It is great for "set it and forget it" until it's time to depressurize.  Think we'll stick to weekends, though.

Either Way You're Only Getting Half a Pan

I learned a hard lesson......you don't leave cast iron items in the oven while baking.

For one thing, they make it so that the oven takes forever to heat up.  I left a skillet and a grill pan on the bottom shelf when I was making banana "snack cake" and later on in the week I made magic bars for the karate picnic.  Yes, I made this mistake twice.

The edges were the only cooked pieces on the banana cake, I was able to salvage this much and throw the rest away.  The boys loved it, though.  Will asked for a taste, and then took the piece from me with a big smile and a "Mine!"  :)  It's going to be the first recipe I write into The Notebook in a while.

 Good Cake.

Bad Cake.

The magic bars edges were destroyed.  Not only because of the cast iron roommates hogging space in the oven, but because I thought that the first step of melting butter in the pan would be enough to grease it.  Yeah.....not so much for the sides.  This is how much I had to throw out, and I despise throwing out food.

So....lessons learned and shared from me, so you don't have to learn them for yourself.

Weird Cooking Methods

Last week we made a shrimp and pasta recipe that was.....not good shall we say.  It was out of a healthy eating cookbook and featured lemon, red pepper, cream cheese and whole wheat pasta.  First of all, it took forever to make.  That is likely because you are supposed to put the shrimp and cream cheese into the sauce OFF the heat, stir a bit, then cover for seven minutes and let the shrimp "cook."  I took the lid off the pan and found mostly-raw shrimp and cream cheese melted into this unattractive "hunks."  Brian put the whole thing back on the stove and got it made, but the lemon juice (from two large lemons, way too much!) with the red pepper was just overpowering.  We put the leftovers in the fridge, and threw them out a week later.

I guess that not every meal can be a star.  This one certainly wasn't!

Brought to you by The Letter "F"

No, not that "F".......today's words are Freezer, Frittata and Fail.

First the frittata....last night's dinner was from the Epicurious  cookbook that we like so much....it was called "Kitchen Sink Frittata."  In other words....tons of stuff in it.  In anticipation of (hopefully) knocking some things off the Holiday To-Do list, Brian had dinner on the table early.  The kids weren't interested in the slightest so they had leftover pizza.  Sean's got an aversion to pizza lately, but even he had a little and then some yogurt.  Anyway.....it was delicious.  Not the most filling meal in the world but just have two pieces and you're good to go!  It had tomatoes, basil and potatoes, and plenty of cheese.  Brian said that the recipe had called for bacon but he didn't put it in, given his bacon-cooking woes as of late.  (Smoke, smoke smoke!)  And I now know the difference between a frittata and a quiche....quiche has crust.  And either of them would be delicious at breakfast.

Now for Freezer and Fail.  I've got a lot of friends that have super good luck in freezing things.  There's a lot of pins on Pinterest about freezer meals.  Yet.....I don't have much luck in the freezing department.  Either I forget something is IN the freezer and it gets destroyed over time, or it wasn't meant to be in the first place.  We also seem to have a shortage in plastic containers, but obviously that's an easy fix:  get more containers.  The most recent fail was the other day:  Brian had made bone-in chicken breasts with a corn relish, with mashed potatoes sometime in November.  It was more food than we could eat at one meal and we were heading to Philly in a few days.  I hate to throw food out, so I froze the chicken, relish and potatoes separately.  This week being a busy week (HA!  That's an understatement) I defrosted them.  Only to my dismay....the potatoes were soup and the relish had turned brown.  The chicken was probably fine but I'm throwing it out anyway because I have nothing to go with it.  I want to get better at this, if other people can do it so can I!

Pork Chop Disappointment

Last night's dinner was a shining example of how they just can't all be winners.

It was a casserole called "Pork Chop and Rice Bake" from one of my go-to cookbooks "9 x 13:  The Pan that Can."  The recipe touted itself as the perfect Sunday meal straight from the oven.  Sounds pretty good, right?

It was not.  The pork browning on the stove next to the onions sauteeing smelled delightful and promising.  My mom, who had stopped by for a visit, remarked at how good it smelled. I was looking forward to this based just on my nose.

However, the end result?  Not delightful.  In fact, it was dreadful.  Not sure how this happened, but it tasted like feet.  I've never tasted feet before, but this is my interpretation of what feet would taste like should I choose to dine on them.  And the rice....oh the horror.  After 45 minutes of baking in the oven it was still as crunchy as it would be if you took a spoonful straight out of the box and put it in your mouth.  Not sure where this went wrong, but it was horribly, horribly wrong.    Needless to say, our trashcan ate well last night, and the recipe got a big-lettered "NO!!" right on the page.  And boo-hoo.....no leftovers for work today.  I'll eat Peanut butter and jelly if I have to, just glad I'm not eating that again!

Candy Corn Oreos: The Verdict

These Candy Corn Oreos jumped out at me at Target last night.  I adore candy corn and I adore Oreos, so I thought, Why not?  I loved the Birthday Oreos that came out to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the oreo cookie.  Why not a different "Limited Edition" flavor?

Two or three cookies in (because you have to make sure, right?) and I can tell you why not:  they're gross.  Not only are the colors garish, they are also over-sweet.  And if that doesn't convince you, the aftertaste of these suckers will.

Every once in a while, something comes along and messes with my purist "stick to the original" attitude.  We don't need fifteen flavors of Doritos, 9 flavors of Lays Potato chips (Chicken and Waffle?  Really?) or White Chocolate peppermint Pringles.  And today, we don't need Candy Corn oreos.  Eat Candy Corn.  Or Oreos.  Emerge happier that you did.

Bad stir fry

It finally happened.  A bad recipe in the Epicurious cookbook.

I put it on the menu last week because it looked like a relatively easy stir fry.  It wasn't.  I should've been more skeptical when Brian couldn't find lemongrass at the grocery store.  I found it at an Asian market downtown, for the astronomical price of $1.37. 

The fish sauce, or the amount of fish sauce in the recipe should've tipped me off too, but sadly it didn't.  Fish sauce smells bad, but is tolerable in small amounts.  A lot of asian -inspired cooking calls for a teaspoon added to other ingredients.  This recipe called for FIVE tablespoons!  As soon as Brian added it to the pan it stunk up the kitchen.  The whole house reeked of dirty feet and regret!! 

At this point, we considered calling it inedible and doing something else.  Neither of us can stand wasted food though, so we plugged on.  Once the lemongrass and garlic were added it became more bearable.  The end result though, was sad.  A nibble of chicken and some of the rice and we pronounced it bad.

Then the garbage disposal even rejected it...and caused a horrific clog.  Poor Brian got to clear our pipes of chicken, Thai chilies and that revolting fish smell.  He required a shower after, it was that bad.

In my notes, I wrote what I reserve for truly terrible food...."never, ever make this again."

Dinner, Saved!

On Monday holidays when I have the day off, I like to put a crockpot meal on the menu.  So last week's Monday dinner was supposed to be Honey Sesame Chicken.   I got the recipe from Pinterest and had made it before and knew it to be fabulous.

Except, last time I had set the crockpot on the low setting and cooked for 4+ hours.  This time I didn't have time for that, with running around with the boys and doing errands.  So I followed the "high" instructions and gave it 2.5 hours.  I checked the chicken thighs at the two-hour mark, and to my dismay they were quite raw.  Auggghhhh!

There was a time in my life that I would've thrown this out and ordered a pizza.  But I hate to waste food, so I set about my salvage mission.  With the rice cooking on the stove, I quickly chopped the chicken thighs and added them to a frying pan with a little oil.  In another pan I poured all the sauce and set it to boil, so there would be no issues with raw chicken juice.

While all this was going on I decided to try my hand at a new veggie:  roasted butternut squash.  Ok, so butternut squash is not new in this house, but usually it's served as a puree with cinnamon and butter.  Instead  I cut it into one-inch pieces and roasted it.  I prepared two cookie sheets and roasted it two ways, one with just salt, pepper and olive oil, the other with the aforementioned and some chili paste.  Livin' large and flying by the seat of my pants!

With the sauce cooked and safe from the boiling, I added some cornstarch and whisked until it was velvety.  Time for plating!

The verdict?  Not only "saved" but downright delicious!  The chicken flavor was incredible, and the squash was awesome too.  Though the chili paste version was much better than the "naked version."

Thank you Food Network, for what you have taught me.

Not-So-Perfect Pairings

Last night's dinner was pork chops on the grill, basted in peach barbecue sauce.  The sauce was a recipe found online and not made up, and it called to be used as a dipping sauce as well.

It was not good.

First of all, the spices that Brian used on the pork were amazing.  I don't remember all of them but I'm sure he will tell me as soon as I publish this blog.  :)  We both used the dipping sauce, only it was a light dip instead of a plunge.  See, despite having an open mind, peaches and tomatoes aren't meant to go together.  I later found out that there was ginger in there too.....no no no.  The finished product was pumpkin-colored.  The worst part was the dishes, and rinsing out the blender.  The smell of hot water hitting the blender made the sauce especially pungent, and it was a while before I could get the smell out of my nose.  Chalk it up to a flop.

Spicy Joes

Sloppy joes....I grew up disliking them and never wanted to have them.  I found out as an adult it was because I detest the canned "Manwich" sauce.  Homemade sloppy joes, with pepper and onion in the meat, and a dash of cider vinegar in the red sauce, though, are delicious.  And better for you, considering the amount of salt in "Manwich."  Homemade sloppy joes are so good, and make incredible leftovers because they get better with age.

So, sloppy joes for dinner last night.  We were going to give the boys their first taste of a sloppy joe.  Until I got a little nibble while I was plating them and said "Whoa!  These are way too spicy for the kids!"  Turns out, if you don't have the tablespoon of chili sauce (kind of like spicy ketchup), you can't substitute sriracha.  At least, not tablespoon for tablespoon.  These things were so spicy, they were nuclear!!  Brian and I got through them, both with burning lips and polishing off a pitcher of iced tea.  (Which was full at the beginning of the meal.)  Any leftovers were promptly discarded.   Chalk it up as a flop, or half a flop, if you will, since we ate them anyway. Not in a rush to do that again!

Pasta and Muffins

Highlights of this past week:  Three Cheese Penne Bake.

  The recipe was in some magazine this week, I think it came with Brian's copy of Time Magazine.  It was cheese (well, duh) spinach, chicken, peppers and pasta.  We opted to swap ricotta for cottage cheese, I despise cottage cheese.  A perfect dinner, with lots of leftovers for lunch later in the week.  It even served as dinner another night for Brian and I, stopping us from succumbing to the Takeout Pizza Monster.

Later in the week, I made chili.  It was not good.  I've made chili many times, but usually use tomato salsa as a base.  This time, there was no salsa in the house, we'd eaten all of it with guests last Sunday and forgotten to buy more.  So in a pinch, I used spaghetti sauce as the base.  Also, we had no red kidney beans in the house, so I used the only thing I had for beans in the house:  white kidney beans.  I thought they'd be better than nothing....I was mistaken.  No leftovers from this epic fail.

However, corn muffins were part of the menu plan on Chili Night.  Whenever there's baking to be done, both boys come scrambling to the kitchen, begging to help.  Will got there first this time, and got to mix the muffins and help pour:

Brian has a few weeks off before his FINAL grad school semester this summer, so we'll be sure to eat better in the weeks to come.  :)

The Breakfast Experiment

A friend's facebook post yesterday about oatmeal for dinner caught my eye yesterday.  (If you're reading, Hi Jes!)  She made a mean oatmeal for her kids for dinner the other night, with add-ins such as almond meal and cinnamon.  It got me thinking about oatmeal, which I like a lot.  I've never really considered it for dinner, because only Sean likes it.  Will won't touch it, which is too bad because it's delicious!

I'm not really good about breakfast during the week, I never eat enough and I'm always starved at my desk long before lunch.  Guess what...I'm not great with snacks either.  So this morning, I was standing in front of the fridge looking for a quick meal.  That's when I saw the leftover pork tenderloin and mashed potatoes, in a Tupperware container with no lid.  Obviously I cannot bring tupperware with saran wrap on top to work too easily, so how about eating it for breakfast?  I've always prided myself on being able to eat anything at any hour.  Hostess cupcakes at 6AM?  Sure. Cold spaghetti at midnight?  Yep.  Buffalo wings before bed in college? I'm your girl. 

Into the microwave it goes, and I go off to dry my hair.  Soon Will wanders into the bathroom, informing me that I need to check his brother's diaper.  I check, and it's fine.  (Which is good, since I had just changed him.)  I told him that it was fine, and he said, "Well, what's that disgusting smell then?"  The smell: leftover Brussels sprouts.

Humph.  Turns out that there IS something that I can't eat at any time of the day.  However, mashed potato and pork tenderloin weren't too bad for breakfast.  :)

A Weekend of Food

The Good

Brian's pork roast came out absolutely beautiful.  It had roasted for several hours, in a citrus-herb marinade.  Fork tender and delicious, everyone had extra servings.  Dinner was made complete with rolls, baked potatoes, carrots and green beans.  And dessert, oh dessert!  We served two desserts, because we were honoring TWO birthday guests.  Mom's birthday was last Monday, and Dad's was on Friday.  There was coconut cake with chocolate frosting and toasted coconut on top, and there was a fresh apple pie.  A little of each was left over, as well as some pork.  The pork made for a great sandwich yesterday, too.

The Bad

Dinner last night was from one of my favorite cookbooks:  "9x13...The Pan that Can."    Meatball and Polenta Casserole.  The recipe was a total disaster.  Sometimes simplicity ISN'T a good thing.  Meatballs, polenta and cream of mushroom soup....not necessarily a delicious dinner.  Oh wait, I forgot the mozzarella cheese.  The cheese could not save this dinner.  We each ate a bit off our plates, then I said "I'm sorry, I just can't eat this," and Brian agreed.  The polenta was like a corn sponge.  So instead of making something else, we just had a slice of leftover apple pie for dessert. 

You Will Assimilate!!

We did our family applepicking last weekend on a gorgeous fall day.  It's been kind of a busy week, so we haven't made a whole lot of things with the apples just yet.  However, on Monday night, I had the ultimate applesauce fail.  

Mom dropped off her food mill on Monday at Brian's work.  After dinner I eagerly picked out three pounds of apples and started to chop.  With a food mill, peeling is unnecessary.  Which is good because I hate peeling and coring apples.  I cooked the apples on the stovetop as the recipe indicated.  A couple turns on the food mill and it wasn't the happy experience I remembered from the year before.  Not as bad as using a wooden spoon to PUSH the APPLES through a STRAINER.  Now that's a workout!  The apples were just....not squishing into a big beautiful bowl of applesauce.  Alas, there was to be no warm applesauce to pour into oatmeal the next day, or a snack for the boys.  The trash ate well that night.

I couldn't figure out what I did wrong.  The apples, no matter how long I cooked them, never really softened and refused to acquiesce when I put them in the food mill.  I chalked it up to getting distracted, being home alone with the boys while I tried this culinary adventure.

Today I gave it another go.  Cored and chopped the apples, cooked them on the stove as indicated.  Back into the food mill.  NO GO.  What gives, man?  What kind of Frankenstein apple doesn't soften after 30 minutes of cooking?

Guess what.  Apples will assimilate under the power of a food processor.  And if you pulse it enough, you don't even realize that there's peels in there.  It tastes pretty good too, although my little applesauce taster is currently taking a nap.  Take that, apples.  You LOSE! 

Next up in Apple Land:  apple fritters, which I've never had.  And of course, an apple pie.

Where's the Waffles??

There are two well-known facts in our home when it comes to cooking.  One:  If the recipe calls for milk, we will probably forget to put it in.  Two:  Waffles cease to exist in our house, unless they come frozen in a box.

So when we were making the menu for this week's dinner and Brian wrote "Waffle Night" for Friday, I thought he was joking.  He wasn't:  stubborn as he is, he refuses to believe that he cannot make waffles.  

So Waffle and Bacon night it is.  The bacon, having fried up nicely on the stove, is keeping warm in the toaster oven.  The entire house smells beautifully of bacon.  The waffle iron is plugged in, and he's busy doubling the recipe so that we can put leftover waffles in there.  First, he forgets the milk.  Luckily, it is remembered before the mix hits the waffle  iron.  We wait, with baited breath, for our first batch of waffles.  

I am working on the menu for next week and  Brian says "What are we having for dinner on Friday?  I say "chili and cornbread, why?"  He says, "No, how about this Friday.  You know, today?"

The waffle iron has been flipped open and there's.....waffle batter.  The damn thing was plugged in to heat up and it never got hot enough.  The damn thing is broken.  

All you can do is nod and smile.  Brian took it well, with a smile and "I can't believe this s*#t."    The elusive Holy Grail of Breakfast Food has passed over our home again.  So what the hell to do for dinner?  I know!  How about BLT's?  No---No L, No T.  How about bacon, egg and cheese english muffins?  Every egg in the fridge is in the waffle batter.  So with that, dinner is at Friendly's.  The kids were thrilled!

We come home, and the iron is deemed trash.  Waffles have been doomed to frozen and restaurants.  And to add to the misery:  Joey was sitting on the couch waiting for us when we got home from our impromtu Friendly's Feast.  He was not pleased--we left him with the intoxicating smell of bacon and there was none for him to scout.

I'd say better luck next time...but there will be no next time.  

The Beet Incident

Long day at work.....and I'm hungry as soon as my feet hit the front porch!  Brian usually starts dinner because he is home first, but tonight it's me.  I take a quick look at the menu posted on the side of the fridge and am delighted to see Maple-Pecan Chicken.  It's a new recipe and I'm looking forward to it.  A quick scan of the cabinet and I decide on rice pilaf and fresh brussels sprouts as accompanists.  On a whim, I grab a can of beets, too.  I adore beets... they're delicious hot or cold, in a salad or as is.  I've always wanted to roast some fresh beets but I'm afraid I'm the only one who will eat them.

I put Sean in his highchair and share my snack of pretzels with him.  I then proceed to take out all of the pans that I need, and grab a can opener and start to open the beets.

SPLASH!!!!!  I'm not sure exactly what happened, but the can slipped out of my hand and beets and juice went EVERYWHERE!!!!  I actually shrieked as it was happening!  Then I just stared at the kitchen in total shock and disbelief:

Say it with me...OH.  MY. GOD!!!

My my my my my...where to start.  I'm covered with beets, my kitchen is covered in beets and now I have to figure out the least messiest way to dispose of this ungodly mess.  So the first thing I could think of was to get rid of my clothes.  That's right....stripped down to my underwear and carried the scathed clothing to my hamper so not to permanently stain my tan carpet.  Soon after, Hubby came home with the Big One and I didn't even want them to go into the kitchen.  Unfortunately, the doggie doesn't care for beets, otherwise cleanup probably would've been a snap.

Half a roll of paper towels, two swiffer pads and a load of laundry later....it's mostly clean.  Beets sure make a mess, and the juice travels pretty far.  I am pretty sure that there is a much easier way to dye my kitchen a lovely shade of pink!

Making Changes: The Good and the Bad

As I probably have mentioned before (and am too busy to check) I started a weight loss program with the local hospital.  It's a fifteen week program, with five weeks each dedicated to the subjects of Nutrition, Exercise and Psychology.  (what you're eating, what you're doing fitness-wise and why you want a candy bar when you are so stressed out you could choke someone)

I was supposed to start this program back in September, but I got waitlisted.  'Cause really, does anyone "want" tostart a weight loss program three weeks before Christmas?  I don't think so!  I did meet with the hospital's nutritionist in November, so I got a three week start before everyone else in my group.  I'm proud to say that I've lost six pounds (through Thanksgiving, thankyouverymuch, though I had some unwelcome help from a stomach bug last week, too)  My jeans are looser and I'm already feeling pretty good.  I think one reason why I have been successful so far is because I'm not treating this like a diet.  This is a lifestyle change, people!  And I have the full support of my husband and family, and my friends too.  It turns out that if you're vocal about what you're doing, people want to help!  We've broken our nightly ice cream habit, relegating it to weekends-only.  And we've lightened up our cooking, which has made a big difference.  However, not all "light" cooking turns out to be good food.  This weekend was a prime example for this.

First, the good:  I have no idea where on the Food Network this recipe came from, but Brian made this roasted salmon recipe on Saturday night that was divine!  It was salmon roasted on top of a bed of green, red and yellow peppers, red onion and fennel.  The "fronds" of the fennel were chopped up and mixed with some pecans on top of the fish.  I never thought I'd like fennel, because I'd heard it was licorice-flavored.  Black licorice is one of those things that people either love or hate, and I'm firmly a licorice-hater.  But you know what?  Fennel is delicious!  The salmon, adorned with fennel fronds and pecans, was light and delectable.  I'm continually surprised when stuff doesn't have a buttery sauce or cheese comes out tasting so good, it turns out that unadorned foods save for maybe a little sprinkle of salt can be really, really good.

Now for the bad....which I have no pictures of.  Sloppy Joes.  Brian loves these, especially with that Manwich sauce.  I for one do not like Manwich, it's so salty!  So when he found a "healthy" version made with beef, tomatoes, mushrooms and onions, we agreed to give it a try.  It may be healthy, but it tastes like mush.  I like all of the ingredients, but the sandwich was just a big miss.  Needless to say, our garbage disposal ate very well Friday night!!

Poached Eggs

For every cook, there's something that is a challenge.  Mine is sauces.  I'm terrible at making from-scratch sauces.  I've tried to make my own cheese sauce for homemade mac n cheese but alas, it's not meant to be.  Pan sauce, gravy, spaghetti sauce, pesto.....they all meet the same fate on my stove.  Not that I won't keep trying.  I wish that I could find a class on sauce-making tips.  (Not that I'd have the time for it, anyway!)

Brian's "Mount Everest" is poached eggs.  Poached eggs are in another favorite in our house...Eggs Benedict.  That's that wonderful dish of English muffins topped with Canadian bacon, poached egg and Hollandaise sauce.  However, a poached egg can be made by itself, served with toast for sopping up all that yolk.  (mmmm)    They're absolutely delicious, but require quite a bit of set-up, delicate handling and precise timing.  If the poaching water isn't hot enough, they get to be a mess.  And if you cook them too long the yolks turn hard. 

So after reviewing a tutorial in a magazine, Brian went for the "climb" this morning.  I'll let the results speak for themselves in pictures:

Cooking in a pan of water and cider vinegar.  The one on the bottom left isn't quite going to make it!

 

Two poached eggs and a side of sausage

 

Now THAT'S what a poached egg is supposed to look like!

Now Brian's "Everest" is nothing more than a little sledding hill.  Hmm....maybe I should get working on some Hollandaise sauce and together we can make that Eggs Benedict happen!

Kaboom!

In a further quest for good health, I bought a spaghetti squash.  I actually really like spaghetti squash, but don't buy it often 'cause I'm the only one that does!  I usually serve it with tomato sauce and half the amount of spaghetti than I usually have.  (Less carbs that way) It's also really good with just some butter, salt and pepper. 

So anyway, I did what I usually do:  poke a bunch of holes in it with a sharp knife and then microwave it whole.  I've heard of people cutting it in half, putting it face-down in a pan with a little water and baking it, but uncooked spaghetti squash can be VERY difficult to cut in half.  Out of the microwave, you can cut it in half easily, remove the seeds with a spoon and then scrape the flesh into "spaghetti strands."  Apparently, I didn't cut enough holes in it, because Brian was feeding the baby and heard it explode in the microwave!  Three seconds later, the timer went off, indicating that it was finished cooking.  What a mess!   Salvageable though, and delicious.  :)

Rice: The New Crunchy

Guess what??  The baby's here!  Sean was born on Sunday, Jan 10th, and we came home from the hospital yesterday.  So far things are going great, he is a very laid-back baby who likes to eat and looooves to sleep.  Not that I expect every night will go so smoothly.

The food in the hospital was actually pretty good.  I am definitely going to miss just calling "room service" and having a tray delivered 45 minutes later.  I especially missed it last night when I cooked my first post-baby dinner.  The weekly menu is on hold, of course.  Last night was just a simple dinner of frozen chicken breasts (Barber makes these stuffed ham and cheese ones that rock.)  I cooked some rice and opened a can of corn.

Ok....I have cooked a lot of rice in my life.  I know how to do it by heart, and it doesn't take a lot of thought.  I know that the water doubles the amount of rice, so for every cup of rice you measure out, you need two cups of water.  So that's what I measured.  I poured the water into the pot, added a pat of butter.  So far so good.  Brought it to a boil, added the rice, turned it to low, gave it a stir.  Then added the lid and set the timer.  Twenty minutes later and it's gruel.  Crunchy-looking, totally wet and absolutely not edible yet.  Brian puts it back on the stove and I'm grumpin' because I'm hungry!  Since the chicken's done, we start on that and the corn.  Geee......delicious.  Ten minutes later we have paste instead of rice, it's turning gooshy and sticking to the pan.  So corn and chicken for dinner, and the garbage disposal again eats well.

Sometimes "the laws of physics cease to exist on my stove!"  (If you can name the movie where that quote comes from....1000 Cool Kid points to you!)