Tag Archives: cooking

Real conversation that happened in my house yesterday:

Brad: So, what are you cooking for dinner?
Me: Is that a joke?
Brad: Um, no? Didn’t you say that you were going to do something with that chicken?
Me: Oh crap. Yeah. What do you want me to do with it?
Brad: I don’t know. I thought you were cooking dinner.
Me: Well…{quick glance through fridge/freezer/cupboards} I guess I could throw it in some mac n cheese and toss in some green beans. Or do you want corn? Does that sound ok?
Brad: uhhhhhh…..sure?

See, here’s the deal. I don’t cook. I used to cook but then I married a restaurant manager and I haven’t cooked since. Brad does the grocery shopping, has a planned menu for the week by Sunday, and kicks me out of the kitchen at approximately 5:15ish every night. Then roughly 1 hour later I am served a delicious, carefully prepared, beautifully presented, balanced meal, drink and all. Some nights it’s chicken alfredo garnished with tomatoes, some nights it’s London broil with baked potatoes and green beans {that was a few days ago}, occasionally it’s fresh fish with rice and a vegetable. Brad cooks. I concoct.

I cook like my father, who, by the way, is a wonderful cook. But there are two very key elements to our cooking 1) there is never, ever a plan, and 2) you use what you have on hand. The end is always a surprise. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. I guess, thinking about it now, I cook the way I live.

Let’s go back to dinner last night for a second. A few grocery trips ago I had this genius idea that if I buy a whole chicken I can cook it and then use the meat for several different dishes. It’s like $4 for a whole chicken…so that’s like 3 meals for $4…pretty genius, if I do say so myself. Except, Brad doesn’t cook casseroles and I never cook. Which means that it sat in our freezer for like 3 weeks, and then in our fridge til it thawed. Then I cooked it. The next day I made casserole #1, and then it sat in our fridge. A few days later Brad used some of it for some chicken “spaghetti”, but with Penne noodles {with Italian dishes we typically use whatever noodles we have on hand}. Then it sat in our fridge. We were getting to the end of it being usable…so I had to cook it. Pronto.

After my assessment of our cupboards I quickly realized that I could either 1) cook the same meal Brad did just a few days ago, or 2) make a concoction….what do you think I did?

I’m not going to show you pictures of the meat b/c that’s gross. But I took the meat, tossed in some green beans, and mixed it all into Stouffer’s Macaroni and Cheese

Then, a second glance into the cupboards reveled Ritz crackers. Only one problem, they were “Honey Butter” flavored. Last time I checked that didn’t go too well with chicken/mac n cheese/green beans. But I’m pretty quick on my toes…so I crumbled them up, added some garlic salt and pepper and a little bit of melted butter.

And then I sprinkled that concoction on top of my other concoction. Threw it in the oven for, I think, 30 minutes….and then…tada! Dinner, is served.

You’re welcome, America.

Sorry…you have to know that I’ve been internally laughing the entire time that I have been writing this post. Brad is laughing at me too. But he’s laughing because he thinks it’s completely ridiculous that I took pictures of last nights dinner. Which, of course, he is correct in thinking. Anyways. While I was slaving away in the kitchen…here’s what my little girl was doing.

So…what did you cook for dinner last night? Did you cook? Or do you have somebody who cooks for you? Or, did you just say “screw it” and have peanut butter and jelly? OR…are you a really good cook and you want to give me your favorite recipes???? Cause I’ll take ‘em…I will!