All Day in the Kitchen

I spent all day in the kitchen
cooking my fingers to the bone
and what thanks to I get
especially since I am alone.

Now I know how my Grandma Mary felt when she cooked all day on Christmas Eve or New Year's Eve. I spent all morning cooking chicken leg quarters and then I spent the afternoon cooking green pepper and potatoes for soup. Now all I have to do is mix the soup ingredients together in the electric skilled and I will have green pepper and potato chicken soup.

I'm going to put all the soup making in the refrigerator until Friday or Saturday because I think I need to purchase an onion and some carrots to go in the soup. I have to go out in the morning for gas and some other things, so I'll stop at the grocery store on the way home and pick up the onions, carrots, etc. to finish the chicken soup. Then I can have hot soup this weekend to go with my cucumber salad and chocolate pudding or chocolate cake desert.

The Mystery of the Missing Cooking Utensils

I am missing a one cup measure, a slotted spoon, and most of my teaspoons. I have written about the missing teaspoons before, but I cannot remember which blog contains the entry. I am not down to about three or four teaspoons, which is not a problem if I wash dishes every time I use one. The biggest problem is the missing measuring cup and the slotted spoon because I use those when I cook at home.

I remember using both the measuring cup and the slotted spoon on Thursday or Friday, so they have to be around the house. When I mixed up the dry milk I could not find the measuring cup or the spoon both of which I use to mix the milk. I made do with a half cup measure and a wooden spoon. The problem is that using the wooden spoon to mix the dry milk are the lumps left in the milk. When I use the slotted spoon I do not have lumps left in the milk.

Not having those items is inconvenient and makes cooking some foods difficult. I can us the half cup measure, but I prefer using the one cup when I have to mix the dry milk. On the bright side, I can use the experience of cooking without the proper equipment in a short story or a poem. I might even be able to use it in my NaNoWriMo novel in November.

I Cook therefore I am

I enjoy cooking. I enjoy experimenting with spices. I enjoy writing poetry. I enjoy experimenting with poetry forms.

The enjoyment of cooking comes from Grandma Newland, who loved to cook from scratch. I use prepared mixes sometimes and sometimes I cook from scratch. However, I always experiment with spices and ninety-nine percent of the time, my experiment works out and the food tastes good. I eat whatever I cook, so if the food does not taste good; I eat it any way.

Grandma liked to cook
Grandma enjoyed housework
I enjoy cooking

I do not know which side of my family the creative writing comes from, I know I like writing poetry and experimenting with poetry forms.

I made stew today

I made stew today. I used a pork roast cut into chunks, sweet potatoes, celery, carrots, onions, and garlic. The veggies were in the refrigerator and I had to use them up before Friday, so I made stew. We didn't eat it all, so I'll warm it up for tomorrow.

Winter is stew weather. The warmth of the stew helps warm you up and the meat gives you energy to withstand the cold. I like making stew and this is the first time I've used a pork roast for the stew meant.

Stew with a little beef or pork roast is easy to make. Just cut the roast into chunks, put it in the slow cooker with garlic, onion, and enough water to cover the meat. After the meat is cooked then add the veggies. I like using a roast better then stew meat because the roast is tender and cooks up better then stew meat.

This is stew weather
meat, sweet potatoes, veggies
Grandma remembered.

I am expanding my writing

I am expanding my writing. I wrote two different essays today for contests on writing.com. One was a cooking essay, I wrote about making Hobo Stew. The other was a comedy piece about putting together a bookcase.

The bookcase essay I will know about tomorrow, if not before. If I don't get any reviews about it by Tuesday morning, then I'm going to request reviews from one of the review groups. I am curious about people's reaction to that essay. I know the essay needs work, not so much in the writing style as the comedy part. I want to know if the piece is funny. I want it to make people laugh.

The Hobo Stew piece could use some work as well. However, I am not sure what I am looking for in reviews with that piece. I will think about before I request reviews for that essay.

I Baked a Cake in a Microwave Oven

Istiqlal (Independence), 19 Sharaf (Honor), 164 B.E. - Friday, January 18, 2008 about 12:18 PM PST

I know everyone was expecting a different entry. A flash fiction story, I'll make that entry later today. However, I just could not wait to brag about this. I baked a cake in a microwave oven today. Now I am looking for other nontraditional Microwave foods to fix.

So far I have fixed a turkey and a cake in my Microwave. The Microwave I have I picked up off from a Las Vegas Freecycler. I have had it a couple of years now; I do all my cooking in it. However, this is the first time I have used it to bake a cake.

The cake I made came from a boxed mix and the box did not have Microwave direction. I have a Microwave cookbook that gives recipes for baking so I just took the time from one of the cake recipes in the book. It worked out fine and the cake came out of the oven looking good.

I think I can cook anything in a Microwave. I like to bake, but writing takes up most of my time. I do not have the time to use fixing food in a regular oven. Now I can make a cake and bake it in the Microwave. I do not know what took me so long to try this. I think I will attempt making cookies in a few days. I have a mix for peanut butter cookies in the fridge.