I bet I have a lot of friends and family who never thought they would be reading that blog title for me. What? Melissa loves to cook? No way. Well, guess what?! I do! And it turns out I always did. But...it is so much more fun cooking for people who appreciate it and enjoy your cooking. Who knew? No real complaints, other than “Why do we have to have vegetables or a salad with every meal?” and “Why can’t we put sugar on everything?” Trying to make teenagers eat healthier is a bit of a challenge. But they put up with me. Of course, I haven’t made my famous tuna noodle hotdish where I forget the tuna either so there is that. I did make spaghetti one time and accidentally used a can of Ro-tel tomatoes with green chilis. That spaghetti turned out with a little more kick than originally intended. But they are a forgiving bunch.
Something else that has helped foster my love for cooking is variety. It used to be so boring to rotate through the same old recipes. So I would stock up on cookbooks, but searching through page after page was time consuming! And then trying to find it again was always a new challenge. Now I have the joy of Facebook and Pinterest. I have several boards on Pinterest dedicated to recipes, Snacks, Seafood, Chicken, Desserts, etc… The latest craze is everyone sharing the videos of recipes on Facebook. Typically I try to take the time to go the actual website and pin the recipe. But sometimes I’m lazy or just in a hurry and save it for later on Facebook. Seems like a lot of those tend to be desserts. But there have been some good meal recipes too - Carter has a tator tot one that I’m ready to try this week on Facebook. I do still get the same tried and true response to the age old question, “What should I make for dinner?” “I don’t care.” That used to frustrate me. Now it means I have free range to make whatever I want and wherever the world wide web takes me.
I do have roadblocks to cooking though. One being trying to maintain a decent weight. There are so many amazing dessert recipes from cheesecakes to bars, to cookies and custards and pies and cakes and… and … and… I want to make them all. I don’t think my coworkers are complaining, or Tim’s for that matter, as I still make them and try them out, I just get them out of the house as fast as I can. The latest was a recipe for Lunch Lady Peanut Butter bars. So amazing and a recipe I have been looking for since I had these exact bars as a kid. I do try to tell myself they are a health food because, hey - they have oatmeal and peanut butter. Those are both “good”ish for you. But the loads of sugar probably negate any “good” properties.
Another roadblock is my love of seafood and almost my entire family’s distaste for it. It’s hard to make two different meals considering our busy sports and work schedules. I barely have time to make one. Plus seafood scares me a little bit. It’s all so expensive that I can’t imagine having a fail with a bag of $12- $20 shrimp. So I’ll leave the seafood to Red Lobster, unless it’s fish sticks. Those I can probably handle. Or Tim’s famous crab dip. We have that one down.
One of the final roadblocks is finding the right amount of food to make for our family of 6. On nights we are all together it takes a lot of food to fill everyone up. Active kids can eat! Hotdishes typically need to be doubled. I’ll never forget the night I had a hotdish in the oven for all of us, Libby and Carter were home first so I had them take it out of the oven. The other four of us arrived home to ¼ of a pan of hotdish left. That one was obviously a hit. But apparently “leaving some for everyone” is a skill we are still working on.
Despite the roadblocks, I love cooking. I love that Tim helps out in the kitchen and we cook together and clean up together. I love trying new recipes and trying to decide as a family if it is a keeper or a fail. Majority rules of course. I do have some funny Tim cooking stories, but until I get permission to share, I guess you’re just stuck with spicy spaghetti and noodle hotdish minus the tuna.
Now tonight. Tonight is an exception to the rule. Tonight I’m on my own for supper so in honor of National Popcorn day, guess what I’m having? Used to be a standby for a quick meal and it still does the trick! Happy National Popcorn Day!
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