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4/21/2011

Culinary Adventures

Over the past few years I had transformed from cooking dinner a few times a year to cooking dinner practically every single night. Dustin is still the Master Chef in this house, but I do a pretty good job of it as long as it doesn't revolve me touching large chunks of raw meat.

It took me about 6 months to get comfortable and then I started getting a little bored, so I gathered recipes from food blogs and started on those. I was still slightly limited, though, because I HATE touching raw meat. I don't mind ground turkey or fish, but chicken breast made me want to gag and pork loin was even worse (we don't eat red meat). I finally got to the point where I could empty them into the crock pot and then shred the meat. This got me another year of recipes. But after that. BLAH! I honestly don't know how some of you have cooked for 12 plus years of marriage, because after a few years I had pretty much done it all and was running out of new ideas. Everything seemed like the same recipe with a few tweaks.

And so I decided. . .it was time to touch chicken.

Earlier in the week, my neighbor had me come over and gave me a crash course in wheat grinding and bread making (which I've actually gotten really good at BTW). (PS Ever wondered what I look like when I haven't showered or bothered to try and do a thing with my hair?? Now you know.)
Just call me the Little Red Hen, but when I was done making my bread I felt so empowered! I could conquer anything in the kitchen! Even chicken!

So I got that chicken out of the freezer and I pounded it and then I covered it in panko bread crumbs and made my kids a nice baked parmesan chicken. And just this week I progressed to CUTTING the chicken into squares and making homemade chicken nuggets. I may even get brave enough to cook chicken in a pan someday. But at least chicken in the oven recipes are being made.

Any great recipes to share? Or suggestions of what to try next??

3 comments:

Lisa Brown said...

Way to overcome your fears :). And I don't like touching raw meat either - yuck, but I like eating cooked meat so much, I put up with it :).

Ms. Morgan said...

way to go! I'm a primary cooker in my house too but there are somethings I'll refuse to do (i.e. Stuff the Turkey at Thanksgiving).

http://epicureanenthusiast.blogspot.com

Mamacita said...

Great job Maddy! That bread looks amazing and I love that skinny girl recipes link you gave me.