My Newest System: Becoming More Domestic

It's 2am again and guess who's blogging...me! A lot of nights I fight sleep I really am tired, but once in a while I'm awake and productive. Tonight is one of the awake and productive nights.

I am my mother's daughter in so many ways. Yes, we have a lot of differences, but I love creating new systems and methods of organizing things. My most recent new system involves another one of our similarities: a love of food! Cooking dinner has become one of those chores I don't look forward to, and after thinking about why, I think it's because I want to be good at it without practicing (sounds like my years of playing piano and flute all over again...haha).

Anyway, numerous family and family friends that I consider talented in the kitchen have given me all sorts of cookbooks over the years. I should be using these resources! So, this past week I pulled a couple cookbooks out and thumbed through, writing down the entrees that I wanted to try (I intentionally skipped over the desserts). Then I did another one of my favorite things: created a spreadsheet! I organized the meals into two categories: "30 minutes or less" and "over 30 minutes." After the spreadsheet was complete, I had Matt pick out six meals for the next two weeks, created a list of groceries to buy and scheduled cooking into my calendar. I'm really excited about trying the following recipes:

• Balsamic-Glazed Pork Chops
• Beef and Broccoli Stir-Fry
• Beef Teriyaki
• Big Beef Burger Stack-Ups
• Chicken and Sweet Potato Curry-in-a-Hurry
• Chicken Schnitzel

On a related note, another fun tool I'm excited about is an application on my phone: OurGroceries. It allows me to create a shopping list on my phone that I don't have to worry about losing, but the coolest part: I can share it with Matt so either of us can add / take off anything. That means if either of us goes to the store, we just have to pull the application up to see what's on the list. Isn't that fun??

National S’mores Day, Chocolate and Julie & Julia

First of all, happy National S’mores Day everyone! I won’t really be celebrating because we don’t have access to an open flame, there are no marshmallows in the house and I’m allergic to graham crackers. I might be able to dig up some chocolate to eat, though…

One of my favorite types of chocolate is 70% dark chocolate “Concerto Batons” from Trader Joe's. Unfortunately they discontinued them a few months ago, but my mom is awesome and drove around to several local Trader Joe's to get them while she could and while they were cheap. When Matt and I moved to Washington, she rode up with me in the car and brought an entire box for the trip, which she let me keep upon our arrival at the new apartment. We (or rather, I) did a really good job of not eating the whole thing all at once, but then the heat wave hit a few weeks ago and we didn’t think to put them in the refrigerator before they melted =( They just don’t taste as good anymore, although that hasn’t stopped me from eating them. The only chocolate we have in the apartment is now the last baton…and I think today might just be the day to finish it off. It is National S’mores Day, after all.

Today is my parents’ 35th wedding anniversary, too. Yay – go Mom and Dad! Congrats on being happily married for so long.

So last night Matt took me to see a movie he had no interest in seeing: Julie & Julia. I really liked it. For those of you that haven’t heard of it, Julie & Julia is the story of a woman named Julie who decides to cook every recipe in Julia Child’s cookbook in a year. It also tells Julia Child’s story of getting into French cooking and creating her cookbook. I really identified with Julie’s character because I could see myself reacting the same way in similar situations, and Meryl Streep portrayed Julia Child as such a wonderful, vibrant woman. I have to say, the movie inspired me to cook. We desperately need to go to the grocery store (which we’re planning to do today), so I’m planning to pick up a few items to help with one of my favorite things to make: Oatmeal Raisin Cookies! I know it’s a much easier dish, but I’m more of a casual cook so I think that’s okay. I’m excited to try out the recipe in my America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook that my aunt gave me for Christmas a few years ago. It’s by far my favorite cookbook ever. Not only does it include recipes they tried out and recommend, but it tells you how long things should take, which brands they recommend you buy and why food reacts certain ways. Everything I’ve made from it has been easy to cook (which is good for the casual cook) and tasted delicious.

I also finished reading BoneMan’s Daughters yesterday. It’s not my favorite of Ted Dekker’s books, but I still enjoyed it. On a scale of 1-10 (10 being amazing) I’d give it a solid 8. I haven’t decided what I’m going to read next. Matt decided he wanted to read through Harry Potter, which I think sounds fun too, but I want to give him enough of a head start so we won’t both be in the same book at the same time…so we’ll see.