Gourmet chef or PB and J?

I love to cook. I love to try new foods. I love to see what I can create if I just follow instructions carefully. I also love the satisfied look on my family's faces when I succeed in making something lovely.
My cooking experiences grow all the time. I have made Thai food, Italian food, breads of many shapes and variety, French rustic food, proper English tea food, Southern American food, seafood, and even dabbled in chinese takeout food.
Why then, doesn't Charles eat more types of food? I tried to eat so much variety when I was pregnant, which I thought was supposed to help. His favorite food seems to be peanut butter and jam sandwiches (I hate jelly-it never spreads on anything, so he's never had it), but even that doesn't always satisfy lately. When he isn't eating pb and j (which, by the way are NOT my food of choice. Too many smushed sandwiches in school lunches I suppose), he enjoys my other not so favorite food- peas. I mean, don't get me wrong, I am thrilled he eats a vegetable with relish, but peas? Those little green drops of goo? Good. He can have my helping. I'll simply eat his broccoli and spinach. I guess we will be happy after all. I do wish he would eat a carrot or try some lettuce sometime though.

In time.

For now we will have to content ourselves with hot dogs, anything with the name "nugget," "stick," or "tender," pb and j, peas, and the occasional fruit. And milk. Lots and lots of milk. I wonder if he is still trying to live off the stuff sometimes...

Sigh.



Maybe it is my fault. I ate nothing but fruit snacks and apples the first half of my pregnancy. It was not by choice. It was the only two food items that would mostly stay down. Two weeks ago, fruit snacks were on sale. We bought 5 boxes at least. They are all gone. I ate the last one yesterday...with Charlie.

My Cleverness revisited

So I never got back to the croissants. Let me do so now. When you make croissants, you are supposed to cover a cup of softened butter with dough, roll it out and then fold it in thirds. Then it must chill for about an hour and then is rolled and folded into thirds and returned. This happens four times, and each time the dough is supposed to chill in between each rolling out and folding session. That, I believe, is tedious, so I tried folding two times, quickly in a cool room, thus halving the time it takes to make all those flaky layers. It worked very well I thought. Speed is key, though, and I wouldn't do more than two layers at a time. As it was, my butter started to leak through. That did not seem to affect the taste, though, as they were gone by morning.

And, my favorite way to eat croissants? Warm, with chocolate inside them.

This should be on Jay Leno

Ok. I know I just posted, but you have to check this out.

Perhaps there are pirates out there after all...

The $3 plate

I was taught to not spend money frivolously. We especially did not spend extra money to buy commercially endorsed products when off brands were available. I believe this is generally very good advice. Usually the off brand is just as good if not better. I love generic macaroni and cheese, for example.
But yesterday the issue was plates.

Regular plastic plate- $1.00
Mickey Mouse Clubhouse plate- $2.97
Which one would you get?

Sometimes it is better to get the plate that makes your son happy to eat his fruit and vegetables. Charles wouldn't stop talking about the "dog" (Pluto) and "Goofy" as he repeatedly cleared his plate of its oranges repeatedly today. As a bonus, this plastic plate can go in the microwave. Can you do that regular plastic plate???

I think not.

Thanks to my husband, Ches, who saw the Mickey plate's merits.

Oh the cleverness of me...

So I get creative urges every so often. Usually I want to sew things like this, but I don't like spending more than $2 on a pattern. Patterns go on sale at least monthly where I live, so it seems silly to spend $10+ for a pattern that will be $1-2 in a couple of days. Lucky me. Patterns don't go on sale until tomorrow, so I have been sitting on a creative idea for two days with no outlet in sight.
Today, I snapped.
"If I can't sew, why I'll bake!" I thought.
I've had a pound of butter in the refrigerator for about a month now, just begging to be turned into croissants. Today I broke down and got my "mis en place" in place and got to work. Yum! I hope they work out.
If you haven't made croissants from scratch yet, you should know they aren't difficult. They just take all day.
And you can't cut corners. Much.
I'll let you know if my corners were ones that can be cut. Stay tuned!

Thoughts

Tonight I found out I am a goody goody. When Ches and I dated, we made (and broke...) a rule to only kiss once a night.
When I went to BYU, I enjoyed and supported the Honor Code.
However, I do not consider myself to be a goody goody. There are many rules I think are ridiculous.
For example:

• No back scratches before marriage
• Kissing for the first time over the altar
• staying in a suit and tie all day Sunday
• ...and many other things I can't think of

I guess everyone is different and I should not judge those who do wait to kiss over the altar anymore.
Hmmm...

Welcome to my World

Charles must have caught my disease. He couldn't decide what to have for lunch today. We ended up having macaroni and cheese. Yum! In the end, I think we chose well, don't you?