The Little Things

I like to cook. I think I always have, though I don't really remember far enough back to be sure. I know in junior high a friend of mine was at my house and we wanted to bake a cake. The ingredients called for 3 3/4 c flour, then the first instruction was to grease and flour the pan so we tried using the entire 3 3/4 c! We had to call my friend MissJan - my answer to all cooking related problems - to ask her how on earth we make all of the flour seep into the crisco. She told us to dump it out, rinse the pan, and start over...which was probably by far the best solution. MissJan has offered me many lessons since then, and I think I'm a pretty decent cook.

In college I developed more of a love for cooking. I didn't have much money, so it was pretty rare that I could cook that extravagant of meals, but I enjoyed cooking when I could and I loved learning all sorts of new recipes, cooking techniques, lessons, etc. I won't say I was the best cook, but I enjoyed it!




I am a Type A cook though. I can't cook macaroni and cheese without measuring spoons, so if I ask you how to make something I'm REALLY looking for a specific, written-out, measured-out recipe. I've done better over the last couple years with trying to just "add a hint of this" and "throw in a pinch of that" but for the most part, I'd really like a detailed guideline. Austin is a great cook, but I would be surprised if he even knows where our measuring spoons/cups are...so in the kitchen, we take the opposite approach. Hmm, I'm pausing here noticing that in most areas of life we take the opposite approach. In the end though, both of our macaroni and cheese delights (we're talking Kraft here) taste equally delicious.


However, I've struggled since William was born with balancing my desire to be physically fit, my work schedule, his daily routine, and my want for cooking. Cooking took the backseat a lot of times as we'd do something fast or simple. Nothing wrong with tostada night or frozen pizza night, but I did grow to miss my full meals.


Enter my birthday present from my mom.

I LOVE it. Love. I don't think I've ever loved a cookbook, and usually I don't do very well with them anyway because there's a lot of sifting through to find a recipe that MAYBE you will like, and I end up with 20 cookbooks while only having tried 3 or 4 recipes from each. When I do get around to cooking I usually go to my own recipe book with a compilation of recipes from family/friends that I know we like. This book, however, rocks. I think we've already tried 8 recipes, and I think we've liked each one. The slow cooker chicken tortilla soup wasn't nearly as good as my homemade chicken tortilla soup...but given the fact that my homemade soup takes over an hour, I'll take the slow cooker recipe and maybe just modify it a bit to add some flavor. (look at ME cooking outside the box!)

The book was written for me, I think. It was written for someone who wants more than just a bowl of cereal, but doesn't have time for an hour of cooking. Most of the ingredients are pre-packaged things like canned beans, frozen broccoli, etc and most recipes don't have more than 10 ingredients. There are also tips for making it quicker. Nothing takes more than 15 minutes of prep time which is perfect, because William happily entertains himself on the floor these days for about 20 minutes before he gets mad that I'm not watching him.

So if you're like me and miss the days of having time to cook delicious meals like chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes and fresh green beans, then maybe this book will be a nice fall back. Next weekend maybe I'll go back to the good ol' fried steak meal - its always a crowd pleaser - but tonight, count me in for bacon wrapped pork tenderloin over buttered grits. Yum!

**I forgot to point out the disclaimer: this book is made by southern living. southern cooking is not healthy. so go enjoy some buttered grits, some french toasts roll ups (which are heavenly) and then hit the gym on your lunch break at work. its soooooo worth it.