food update.

i've been keeping up with my cooking goals. :]

friday night was pasta. i tried to embellish the sauce because james likes it better with a whole bunch of veggies vs. my plain old meat sauce. i wasn't a fan of my creation, but after adding some hot sauce [yuck!] james said he liked it. my parents said they liked it as well, but maybe they were just being nice. ha. i think what pushed it into the "not so good" category for me was the green peppers. next time, i'm going to skip them. i forgot to add the goat cheese [andrew added it to his sauce during our pasta night, and it was so yummy], so i'll do pasta again soon to use that.

saturday night was chicken and potatoes. i tried the potatoes a different way, and i loved them. instead of boiling them before baking, i just sliced them sort of thin and then piled on thyme, tarragon, parsley, and freshly grated parmesan cheese. i baked them at 350 for about 40 minutes. basically, turned on the oven to the default temp and cooked them until they were done and the cheese looked nice and crisp. they were my favorite potato creation so far. i didn't like the chicken. james said it was fine, but it tasted funny to me. better luck next time. :]

i totally realize that neither of these meals were revolutionary. they are basically the two things i cook when i actually cook. but. i wanted to keep it simple and basic to ensure that i actually followed through.
plus, this got me excited to pick some recipes to try in the future. i set a goal to cook three meals cooked at home this week, and so far i've cooked two. :]

james and i have been feeling under the weather, so on monday i decided to drag myself out of the house to get the ingredients for pw's chicken and rice soup. it is seriously the best soup. james and i absolutely loved it. i have to say, it felt good to finally cook something that he totally loved. and he didn't add hot sauce! ha. while we were eating it, he said "this is a hearty soup!" i also have to give him some credit. he was a huge help with the chicken. i'm still conquering a little meat aversion. i just have a thing about raw meat and icky parts of meat. i managed to wash the raw chicken and get it in the pot, but he took care of cutting it off the bone and slicing it up and getting rid of any icky parts. we ate it with some sourdough toast, which was fun to dip into the soup. it was the perfect meal for a sick day [although i think it would be perfect on any cold day.] and totally worth all the work. i'll definitely be making it again. i did make one alteration to her recipe. instead of pimentos, i added carrots. and next time, i will probably add a little more water. we didn't end up with a ton of broth, and i like a good amount of broth. james stayed home from work on tuesday because he was getting more sick, and we had soup and toast again for lunch. then i had it for a late snack that night. he took some to work today for lunch, and i ate it for lunch. there's still some left! and i'm not sick of it at all... it's really that good.

on tuesday night, i made grilled cheese for dinner. i was going to do grilled cheese and tomato soup [another good sick food, right?], but my dad took james and his brother to eat at the buffet. boys. seriously. they will never pass up on eating buffet. i'm not a big fan of tomato soup, so since i was alone for dinner i skipped that part and just made a yummy grilled cheese on sourdough and had some celery sticks [leftover from soup preparation] with peanut butter. yum.

now i just need to cook tomorrow or friday and i will have met my goal again. :] i'm really starting to love cooking. it's about time, right?

in other news, i've also been slowing but surely cleaning my studio. i'm making an effort to at least do a little something in there each day. and i managed to get all my scrappy stuff that had spread to the couch in the family room cleaned up. so the couch is nice and clear, which has a lot of people happy around here. :]

and as far as the sickness, i'm not sure i'm getting better. it started with a cough and the ear thing. then i started noticing this popping sound in my chest. the first couple times it happened, i was doing something like jumping over the dog gate, and i thought it was just my necklace bouncing up and then hitting my chest. it's the same noise! then i realized i wasn't wearing a necklace. and tonight i'm getting a pain in there... but maybe it's just in my head? maybe i've been watching too much house on tv. ha. so we'll see. if it doesn't get better, i might have to venture out to the doctor.

and with that, i think i'm off to browse for recipes. if you have any favorites or favorite places to find recipes, let me know. :]