Employed Busy Bee

During unemployment I really learned how to use time wisely. I now really miss having time in the day to do housework, garden, , exercise, cook, work on photography, and the time to contemplate me next career move. Don't get me wrong I like my new job and feel it's a good fit for me, but I really want to keep my momentum up when I get home from work. I need to fit in exercise, cooking, house work and photography somehow. I really learned that making lists of daily goals really helped me, so I will continue to make those for when I get home. It's time to move on from unemployment and start my new life as an employed busy bee.

Throw Another Anything on the Barbie

This is going to be a short entry today. I didn't get much sleep last night and I feel like I've nearly exceeded my writing threshold before I've started.

I am a big fan of cooking on the grill. We haven't had a grill since we moved into this house, which has been a real bummer. I'm afraid it will be stolen in this neighborhood, and I can't work out a good solution to chain the thing up. When we finally put a new, larger deck on the back of the house I'm allotting a spot for the grill, designed with security in mind.

Until then I can only fantasize about corn grilled in the husk, burgers, dogs and steaks charred the way that only grilling can deliver, and fish, cooked fast but flaky and tender.

I like grilling not only because of the flavor it imparts to food, but also the process itself. I like sitting outside, beer in one hand, spatula in the other, relaxing as the scented smoke billows out from the side of the grill. I like the public solitude, if that makes any sense. Being outside, in your community, doing your own thing. But I like the potential for socialization that grilling promises, too.

It's an all-around great way to cook what generally comes out a great meal.

Crock Pots

Last week, for lunch and dinner, we ate beef stew. Not crappy Dinty Moore Grade D Beef Stew. We ate homemade, slow-cooked, melt-in-your-mouth beef stew. A stew that cows willingly give up their lives to participate in. One that could stand up as the model for which proper beef stews should be judged. So good that, if I learned halfway though the batch it was made from people, I would finish it, though grudgingly, and bring flowers of thanksgiving to the graves of the deliciously departed.

Crock pots are the lazy cooks answer to culinary school and talent. Slow cooking is like a flavor multiplier. It takes a modicum of prep time and simple ingredients and transforms them over a long period of time into stellar results. The rule seems to be, if you can't cook it well, cook it a long time.

I think we're making chili next. You're all invited.

Cooking

I really enjoy cooking a good meal. I like taking a recipe and experimenting with it and making it my own. I never was interested in cooking until I lived by myself for the first time a few years ago. I don't necessarily know what brought it on, but I know it grew and evolved even more when I starting dating Jason. We both love to cook and in the past few years we have made some extraordinary meals. We used to be so proud of our creations that we would take pictures of the final products. I really want to start having dinner parties once our counter tops are installed. Tonight I made my mom's creamed spinach, Jason made his famous cheeseburgers and we used our new fryer to fry up some french fries. Probably not the best meal for you, but it turned out simply delightful. Bon Appetite.