Kitchen Improv

Another Manic Monday

Well, at least the Monday crash after a manic Sunday.

After taking the kids to a birthday party at the local pumpkin ranch (a.k.a. the amusement park and crowded dirt field that poses as a pumpkin ranch), I was already tired.  The party was a blast, I took some amazing photos of my friends’ little boys, and all the kids really enjoyed the petting zoo and carnival rides.  But after hanging out in the sun for four hours, the last thing I wanted to do was head home and work in the hot kitchen.  Watching a show from the Tivo while sipping a cold glass of tea sounded fabulous.  What could get in my way? Hmm. Um. Well, maybe the fact I had 18 pounds of ripe nectarines that were ready to turn?

Yeah, the TV got no love.

So in a flurry of determination, I went a little nuts.  A dozen jars of kiwi-nectarine jam, nearly two dozen jars of nectarine, another six of plain kiwi jam were the result. Nicole, you just had to mention and show pictures of your luscious kiwi jam to put the thought into my head, didn’t you? And a fruit crisp. Oh, and another batch of the butternut squash soup I love because I was out, and did I mention dinner?  But I finished.

What was I thinking?

Sometimes you’d rather kill yourself slaving over a stove than let a perfectly ripened box of fruit go bad.  If you’re like that, as I am, I think that might just qualify you as a foodie.  I’m just coming to terms with it, myself.

Next up? I have 2 gigabytes of raw photos to enhance from the birthday party. Hopefully before Friday.

Mysteriously Absent Pictures

Okay, okay. Enough is enough and it’s time for me to stop being a perfectionist. Starting with my next recipe, I’ll be adding pictures to my blog. I was hoping to be a little obsessive over perfection and build a light box to capture the real colors of my food and not the odd shadows in my poorly-lit kitchen. But let’s face it — who has a studio-perfect setup when they’re not already a TV-show cook? I sure don’t.

So I’ll start taking photos, no matter how imperfect they may be.

Ready for a Prolific Mess

People always say that bad things happen in threes and that when it rains it pours. In the last week this couldn’t have been more true for me or for my family. Though two of the three serious family illnesses are now at bay with a good prognosis, one is still outstanding and anxiety is running high in my household.

I’m doing my best to hold my composure together well enough to work effectively and be a good mom, but now that my husband is back home (again? for how long?), I’m ready to roll up my sleeves and make a mess in the kitchen with a little food-prep therapy. Well, more like a lot of therapy. I think tonight I’ll do that tonight, just maybe I’ll have something worthwhile to post here.

Recently Heard by a Three-Year-Old in My House

“Do we eat at IckDonald’s? Noooooo, that’s fast food. Do we eat fast food? Noooooo, we eat slow food!”

Am I brain washing them? Nah, I think not! It’s been 9 years and counting since my last visit to IckDonald’s. Let’s not spoil that record, nor introduce the kids to it.

Refrigerator Revulsion

An odd smell hit me as I opened the fridge tonight to pull out fixings for dinner for the kids and me. Something was definitely off. I’m not sure whether it was the container of mystery meat, suspicious sauce, or tuna-turned-wrong, but I realized just how many nights in the last month Mr. W and I haven’t cooked or eaten together. Between his travel and mine, I can count about four overlapping dinners and maybe seven common nights at home. The horrors were amassing in the ice box, and I can say the dinners I’ve been cooking this week look far more appetizing than his from last week!