What Happens in the Kitchen . . . Should Really Stay There

So, tonight was a pretty sketchy food night, all in all. Dinner was a slapdash performance, and the recipe I used was called something like Chicken and Broccoli with Garlic and Parmesan. Not bad, right? That's what I thought, plus it was really simple and didn't require any freaky ingredients. There was just one problem . . . I have a chicken phobia. Well, sort of. I have a problem with handling raw chicken. I think it is nasty. I don't like seeing it, touching it, or knowing I have to deal with it. It just makes me want to throw up a little. Or a lot. Depending on the day.

Anyway, I decided that the chicken was not happening today. So I did ground beef instead (for anyone interested . . . no, I have no problem with raw beef. I know. I'm weird). Not that big of a deal, beef substituted for chicken, this is not a big deal for the most part. Yeah, some dishes don't cooperate well if you swap out the meat, but this is not one of them. Potatoes, broccoli, and the other ingredients work just as nicely with chicken or beef. So yeah, I followed the recipe (if anyone has cooked with me, you know what kind of a loose term that is for me. I don't use measuring utensils oftentimes), and it turned out fine. Just not . . . great. Out of the 5 people that ate it, Krissy was the only one that really liked it, I think. I was kinda on the fence, it was ok but not really good. Sammy liked the broccoli.

Well, when I was at the store earlier today I saw some graham cracker pie crusts and recalled that I've been in the mood for a chocolate cream pie for some time. So I got a pie crust, and performed some impressive chef skills by getting the pie ingredients ready to go at the same time as making dinner (no, I did not screw anything up. I was very meticulous). The only thing I changed was instead of unsweetened chocolate pieces (which I didn't have) I did the substitution thingy it said on the side of the cocoa powder container. And did know that if you heat up flour, sugar, milk, cocoa powder, and shortening that it thickens up? Who knew? And do you wanna know what a freaking !@#$% it is to separate egg yolks?! Holy crap! It would have been easier to just throw in the whole egg and take the consequences!

Egg yolks were separated (finally), shortening was melted (fun to watch), chocolate mix was thickening (O_o), managed to accost my sister in law on her way out of the laundry to assist in the grand "mix some of the bubbling chocolate mixture into the egg yolks and beat to prevent the eggs from cooking" attempt. It did work, I was pleased. So, I got everything all mixed together, got the vanilla and butter in, tasted the completely project, AND . . . meh. Didn't do it for me. I was very disappointed. It was too dark chocolatey, and I'm a milk chocolate girl. So I added in the rest of a bag of Hershey's chocolate chips and a handful of marshmallows, but they didn't really do much, sadly.

That lovely pie crust, all wasted now. Of course, I will eat the pie, and I will make everyone else help me, but it just wasn't fantastic. What a let down. I should have done the chocolate pudding recipe I had instead. You just can't fail with chocolate pudding. You also have a lesser chance of getting very small lumps with chocolate pudding . . . (the lumps were my fault . . . yes, you do have to start stirring the chocolate mixture when it starts to heat up. You don't wait for a minute, assuming it won't heat up that fast. *Rolling eyes at self*).

So yeah. There's my unstellar night of cheffing. I did much better a couple weeks ago, I made manicotti! Well, it was manicotti, but in giant shells instead of giant tube pasta. It was fabulous, and it was my first ever time using ricotta cheese! My mother is a die-hard ricotta hater, but I'm going to make her something tasty with it and change her mind.

Ok, this little cook is going to go check on her failtacular chocolate cream pie now . . . I should have gotten the heavy whipping cream at the store, I could have made whipped cream to pretty up the pie. Ah, well. Silly me. Happy cooking to all y'all out there, and good luck with any chocolate cream pie endeavors you take on!

Terrible, horrible, awful, no good, very bad day.

I feel like I just got kicked in the stomach. I found out some extremely distressing news, and though I'm not as shocked and hurt as I was when I first found out, I still have that awful feeling in my stomach and chest. No, I am not saying what this distressing news is, let's just say it's right up there with family members dying and having your identity stolen by a terrorist.

So, whilst we wander away from that subject (my stomach is in knots again) I have fun news to report. This week my parents in law went on a week-long reunion in the Tetons. Normally we all go, but this year we couldn't afford it, my and my hubby both had work, and he had school. His finals are next week, so blowing all that off wasn't an option. Anyway, it was just my little family and my two sisters in law. Well, the week went pretty ok until Wednesday night. It was my best friend's birthday, and she wanted to hang out.

Long story short, due to unforseeable dinner circumstances that I wasn't told about, I ended up coming home almost 2 hours after I planned. This caused a rather explosive and immature fight between myself and my sister in law, which we got over fairly quickly, but for the good of everyone's sanity we spent the rest of the week in separate houses. (This isn't the fun news, by the way, we're getting there). So, on Thursday, my other sister in law went to join her parents camping for the rest of the week so all night Thursday and all day and night Friday we had the house to ourselves!!! Anyone who has ever lived with relatives knows exactly what I'm talking about when I say that it was so different and delightful and relaxing.

Anyway, we're finally at the fun part. We built a tent in our front room out of sheets and bandanas! We had two big sheets stretched over the sectional and tied to chairs and pinned to the walls, and another one covering the gap over the back of the couch and another for the door. It was barely three feet tall at the tallest spot, but it was so fun! We got ice cream and chips and watched movies with our daughter under it, and she thought it was rather the coolest thing ever! I wanted to leave it up until everyone got back from camping, but we figured they would probably want to put their stuff on the floor right where our little tent was, so we reluctantly dismantled it last night. :(

In other news, that same sprained ankle I had, like, a month ago is still not better. I was at my mom's house last week with all my siblings and two cousins and we all did an impromptu performance of the Boot Scootin' Boogie in the dining room (long story, involving internet karaoke, my dad imitating John Travola in Grease, and EFY dances) and I discovered that I am incapable of jumping or skipping without pain on that ankle. Still! How stupid is this! I find it quite inconvenient. I guess it's a good thing that librarians don't often find themselves in need of jumping on one foot.

Ooh, I thought of another fun thing! My little family had a water fight on Thursday. It started out with me filling up the teeny blow-up turtle pool that Sammy likes to play in, then I decided to brush our black lab and got out enough hair to make a whole 'nother dog, then decided to give him a bath. Well, if you have a running hose and a mischievous husband about, you're just asking for it. So, after taking turns with the hose and the bucket, all three of us were completely drenched (except for the dog, who after having his bath steered WAY clear of the water). Then we turned the sprinklers on in the front yard and got drencheder (I know it's not a word, shut up). I'm so ready for summer to end now, we've gone swimming and had a water fight and all that summer stuff. Please bring me autumn!!!

Ok, I'm running out of things to say, so I'm gonna go and try to figure out what to make for dinner that doesn't require cheese, potatoes, hamburger patties, oil, milk, or prefferably an oven since it's almost 80 degrees in the house even with the AC on. Have a lovely day, I sincerely hope yours is a billion times better than mine!!!