Foodie

I know, you’re shocked and excited. I understand. I’m shocked and excited, too — which is why I’m blogging about it. (Well actually, I’m blogging about it because I thought I’d already blogged today and so I have no topic and it seems this is the most interesting thing I’ve got, that I feel like blogging about.)

So, back to me cooking.

It’s not like I have never, in my life, cooked. I used to cook all of the time — I have three grown kids and they did not starve ya know.

It’s just that I’ve cooked less and less as the years have gone by, particularly since we moved to Chicagoland and TW’s mom moved in. And, as the small kids have gotten older, they’re more able to fend for themselves so when TW doesn’t feel like cooking, I don’t have to jump in and pick up the slack. So. I don’t cook much.

When I DO cook, some children feel the need to make a damn production of it. This usually causes me to roll my eyes. Then they spend the rest of the evening listing the “things Denise cooks” which causes me to not want to ever cook anything again.

So annoying.

I wasn’t planning on cooking today. TW made a meal plan for the week. We shopped for that meal plan. And, so far, we’re sticking to it. Tonight we were roasting two chickens and having a nice pasta/veggie/cheese salad. When I couldn’t nap, TW asked if I’d start the pasta, since I was getting up. So I did that.

While it was boiling, I made egg salad out of the last of the deviled eggs. And then, I did some other stuff. Time passed and I decided I’d get up and cut the veggies/cheese for the pasta salad. I did that (with input from TW) and I added a little lemon olive oil and a little cherry vinegar and yum. Then I realized I should just go ahead and put the chickens in, since it was time to do that. So I did.

And poof, there you have it.

I cooked and the small children were not here to comment upon the shock and awe of DENISE! COOKING!

I bought a little jar of Bea’s Ho-Made Applesauce and OMG, it’s gone and I’m in mourning. Worse, I don’t see it on their website. Maybe if I call them, they’ll send me some?

I never thought I’d be hyperventilating over an empty jar of applesauce.

Do you like applesauce? Where did you get the best you’ve ever tasted — or did you make it yourself?

We order pizza at least twice a month (usually more than that) and have done so for more than 10 years. That’s a lot of pizza but it’s NEVER been pizza the way I like pizza.

If I could choose any pizza at all, it would have mushroom, onion and black olives.

Prince J won’t eat mushrooms.
Most of the little kids won’t eat onion.
TW won’t eat black olives.
Elly prefers MEAT, MEAT, and more MEAT but she’s happy to have MEAT and mushrooms (but Prince J doesn’t eat mushrooms and RJ won’t eat meat.)

See the problem there?

So, depending upon the subset of children here for dinner, here’s our normal order and the variations dependent upon children in residence.

1 extra large pepperoni
1 extra large mushroom

or

1 extra large pepperoni and mushroom

or

1 extra large mushroom

Ho-freaking-hum.

I’ve taken to ordering a side of fried ravioli, for myself (though some child who shall remain nameless, RJ, always begs a few and I am nice so I give them to her — grudgingly.)

TW always says, “You know you could order one that’s 1/2 whatever disgusting thing you want and 1/2 what the rest of us want…” but I don’t because I am nice. I know that sometimes restaurants screw those things up and if an extra large pizza showed up with mushroom, onion and black olive there would be hell to pay (and I couldn’t eat an entire extra large pizza all by myself if my life depended on it.)

Well tonight… I did it! I ordered a pizza with half mushroom, red onion and black olives and I LIKED IT. (It looks like other people might also have liked it since an awful lot of it is gone… probably TW’s mom, since I’ve never heard her complain about any of those things on a pizza.)

Yay me! Ya for pizza my way! I’m going to do it again next time, too. Probably.

When I saw Hilah’s recipe for Gougeres aka cheese puffs, I knew I had to try and make them. Then, I got the brilliant idea that Chris and I would make them together because he loves Hilah as much as I do. So… we did.

Here’s Hilah’s video, if you haven’t seen it.

And you can see our version, in several parts because I’m no video production person and it’s Christmas Eve and I don’t have time to figure out how to turn all of my videos into one big video, lol.

The most important thing for you to know is that these were a huge hit with all 11 people in the house — and one dog.

Also, Chris’s balls are bigger than Hilah’s so it only made about 16 balls instead of the 30 Hilah said it would make. We liked them this size, but we’ll have to double the recipe in the future because there were NOT enough.

It’s true, I do not normally order pancakes. I don’t hate them and up here in pancake world, they often come on the side of egg orders and I like that just fine.

Today, however, I ordered pancakes — and just pancakes. But not any old, boring pancakes. These were special made just for me pancakes. Well it seemed like they were made just for me. They came with watermelon, which I love. And blue sprinkles, which I also really really like (all sprinkles should be blue!), and BBQ (yes, I said BBQ) and also with … sugar wafers.

I love sugar wafers.

I should really vow never to eat them again, like I did with ‘Nutter Butters, because if I buy a package I will eat the package — and I will not share.

I was nice and offered TW a bite of my sugar wafer today. She did not accept, I don’t know why. If someone offered ME a bit of a sugar wafer, I would not say no. Nuh uh. I love sugar wafers.

And I’ve decided that pancakes should always come with BBQ and with sugar wafers. Always.