Adventures in the Kitchen

People always seem surprised when it comes up in a conversation...but I really don't like to cook.  It's not because I'm so terrible at it, or anything.  It's just that, to me, cooking is one of those necessities of life that I have to deal with.  There are so many other ways that I'd rather spend my time.  I try to get enthused about new recipes, but, unless they are super simple and only require a few ingredients with minimal prep time, they probably won't be added to my menu plan for quite some time.

The non-culinary delight

A few years back, I tried a new recipe.  It was supposed to be a great family casserole dish, prepared in minimal time, so I allotted my usual hour for fixing dinner.  After 45 minutes of peeling and chopping (and being nowhere near finished), I gave up on that recipe for the night, and threw together something else for dinner.  After 3 days, I finally had finished the prep work for this single recipe.  I decided to go all out for such a masterpiece of a meal.  I pulled out the fine china, glasses with stems, candles, you name it.  I decided that since this meal took so long to prepare, we would really live it up.  Our daughter was so excited to have a fancy dinner!...of course, it tasted nothing like the masterpiece I had been hoping for.  Toss that one in the circular file.

Beef Stew? or Pig Slop?

In an effort to save on food prep time, I've occasionally doubled recipes to put an extra meal in the freezer.  Most recently, I pulled out some beef stew that was in the freezer.  I actually have a delicious beef stew recipe that I use, so it's always tasty.  HOWEVER!...it looks absolutely disgusting after it is thawed out and reheated.  Something akin to pig slop.  No, I'm not joking.  How do you get past the looks of something, even if you know it will taste just fine?

I've recently decided that I should give frozen crockpot meals a try...you know...where you put together a month's worth of crockpot meals in one day and then put them all in the freezer.  My plan is to start searching for recipes that I think my family would like, and then have a monster food-prep day in February.  We'll see how this turns out...I'll keep you posted!