Burning Water

Most, if not all, would agree with me when I tell you I cannot cook. I really do try, I just am not all that domestic.  I seriously have a 6 ingredient maximum for any recipe, which includes salt and pepper (and count as 2/6 of the recipe).  I found a recipe on another blogger’s website and thought I’d give it a whirl…just throw some chicken and a few ingredients in a crockpot and let it go!  Oh. I let it go alright…like 2 hours longer than I was supposed to (accidentally napped for far too long), so the chicken was a little dry, and it just didn’t look or taste I thought it would!  WHO screws up a flippin’ crockpot recipe??? I can’t even manage to make the packaged dough cookies look pretty when they come out…all turned into one big cookie (the pan was to blame, but you’d think I would have noticed the funky bend in the middle, of course not).

I would love to be able to cook more than macaroni and cheese and Knorr side dishes (you just add milk and water…haven’t managed to screw them up yet), but I’m really a lost cause!  The only other thing I can do well is sauerkraut and polish suasage (4 ingredients), so I really hope my future hubby doesn’t mind it every other day, or he’ll have to take up the cooking.

Oh, and there is my sausage dip.  It’s 3 ingredients, and everyone loves it (non vegetarians, that is).  If you’ve noticed, I either bring that or buy something if I have to bring something.  Last time I tried to be different, it just didn’t work out.  I tried making salsa rolls…slather cream cheese on tortillas and put salsa, and roll up.  I got that part down.  Then, cut. This is where it went downhill.  It looked AWFUL, and was embarrassing, but I didn’t have anything else to take.  I told everyone it tastes better than it looks, but I’m sure people thought otherwise.  I can make Thai fried rice, but it’s not consistent…some days it’sbetter than others.  There’s a pork dish I’ve made. I saw it on Food Network, and the fact that kids were helping Giada cook it was the only thing that gave me hope…and it turned out good, but it’s rare if I make
it. There’s a slight glimmer of hope for me in the kitchen, I guess, but I feel like I should be so much better.  My mother and her mother are fabulous cooks. Guess I got my dad’s genes in that area 😦  My little brother even cooks better than I do!

Any tips you can offer me?  If you think your kids could do it, then that’s my kind of recipe!

She-e-e-e-e-eila!!!

This is Dr. Sheila…

We were suite-mates (we shared a bathroom between rooms in the dorms) in college, for 2 years, both had our issues with roommates, and made each other laugh, even when we were afraid we were going to fail a class, or were uncertain about how our decisions would pan out post college, and ended up BFF’s in the process!! She’s now in Chicago, a pharmacist, and I’m trying to get her to move to Nashville, she did like it here, and she’s sick of paying $1300 for rent (can’t say that I blame her)!! I hadn’t seen her since we graduated May of 2006, so it was exciting to meet up!!!!

On Thursday, we went to see this girl perform, and she was amazing, as always! Katie tagged along too, and she’s always an added bonus! Friday, we had a mini barbecue here in the 865 Bellevue complex, and Katie and Sarah joined us, and had a grand ol’ time! We then made an attempt at a dessert…

I was watching the Food Network one day, and they had a company who made chocolate covered frozen bananas, so why couldn’t we???? Well, probably because we don’t have the equipment, but we tried!!!!! They weren’t all that bad, and Sheila loved the sprinkle addition!!!! Next time, we think we’ll fondue it! The next day, we cooked, we made fried eggplant (a personal favorite), marinated chicken (you don’t know what your missing until you’ve had this chicken, promise!), and broccoli…and it was nothing less than fantastic, in my book, and Sheila loved it. She said she didn’t expect to learn to cook, and she said it was so easy. I told her it’s Chef Schmidt style, and I only do easy ha ha!!! I even sent a picture of the food to my mother as proof I do cook, she called laughing!!!!

That day, we went wandering around downtown, I pointed out where Nicole and Keith Urban have a condo, and told her she needs to move there, and I’ll move in with her…she did like the downtown, but she said it’d be at least a year until she changes jobs. I got my fingers crossed!!!! Sunday, she went to church with me, she said she’s not a singer, so she didn’t sing, but she said she enjoyed it, so that was cool!!! We then had our little luncheon afterwards, which Emily and Jason did a fantastic job cooking!!!! Sheila decided to stick around until Monday, which was great! We went to have Chinese over at China Spring, which was pretty good, and went to TCBY, and James, a friend of mine, joined us!!!! We woke up today, she said she wanted some grits, we went to waffle house Friday, and she had loved them then, she offered to pay, so how could I refuse that??  Yes, I can be bought, and it usually doesn’t take much!!!!!  She left earlier today, and it was just a good time for her to come, I’ve just been in a rut, with no job, and what not, and she needed a change of scenery, so it was a great visit!!!!  Thanks Sheila for coming ALL the way from Chicago to visit little ol’ me!!!!