Cooking

I've always been kind of insecure about my cooking skills. That was actually one of our first fights (if you can call it that....we didn't argue really), when Tom said something jokingly about something I made and I of course took it personally because of my insecurities. My friend, Shelli, was there at the time and quickly informed Tom that cooking is not something to tease me about. Friends are great aren't they!!!!

As some of you may know, I'm being a housewife right now while we're trying to get our puppy trained enough to be able to leave him for longer than 3 hours at a time. (At least we can go on a date and to church!!!) Because I'm not used to being home all day every day I'm trying to make myself useful while I'm here. I keep the house clean, all the housework done, & I'm trying to become a better cook. Don't get me wrong....I did cook, just not a lot. (Because I worked a lot, cooking was way down the list of things I wanted to do when I got home after a 10 hour day....EXHAUSTED!!!!) (I'm just not a superwoman like my cousins...you know who you are) Also, I generally didn't branch out a lot. I stuck to my handful of recipes that I was pretty good at. I'm a pro at stir-fry and Lo-Main. I also had a few recipes that I learned my my girlfriends when I was living there. I've also made Potato Rolls a few times (it's my Mom's recipe)....it's always a hit. If you've never had Potato Rolls let me know and I'll email you the recipe. It's one of my favorites!!!!

Most nights when Tom gets home I'm trying to either have a homemade meal or leftovers from a previous meal. I'm also trying to be better at only buying the groceries I'm actually going to use. I was horrible at that!!! Some of the meals I've made, haven't been terribly pretty but they've all tasted great. Which is really what's been important to Tom. I've made a few recipes that were great, but I neglected to take pictures of them! These are the recipes: Summer Tortellini Salad (Pampered Chef), Chili Cornbread Skillet (Pampered Chef), Chicken Tortilla Soup (Pampered Chef), Chicken Enchiladas, & Savory Chicken Squares (Shelli's Cookbook)

I was able to get a couple of pictures.....they're not very good though. They looked so much better in person.

The first picture is ChickenTortilla Soup & the 2nd one is Savory Chicken Squares (which I have cooked before)