midweek confessions

I love to cook.
I love to cook things that I have never made before.
Since we are adventurous eaters and I get bored easily, this means that I cook new dishes all the time. I have people often ask me “What are some typical meals that you make?”. This should be a fairly easy question to answer yet I am always left stumped. Every week I sit down and plan my meals/create my grocery list. I’m always pinning/googling new recipes and so therefore I have a seemingly unending supply that I rifle through. This means that I very rarely repeat meals. Since it is hard for me to keep track I try to use the HWE platform as a sort of online cookbook by documenting the ones that we really liked because otherwise I would never remember them.



With the previous confession in mind … I am so used to cooking new recipes for just Mark and myself that I tend to cook brand new recipes when guests come over because that’s “normal” for me. Welllllll I may be a good cook but that doesn’t mean I always find success. Sometimes a recipe just isn’t quality… and it seems like I always make those when people come over .. which leaves me scrambling to save dishes at the last minute. Guests might be none the wiser because the end result is ok .. but I know it could have been better.



With THAT previous confession in mind … we recently had my birthday party at my house and I cooked for everyone. I wanted to make tortilla soup so I went online and started searching. I found a crockpot tortilla soup that seemed pretty decent. I figured using the crockpot would be great because that would free me up to finish chores and then mingle once guests arrived. Guest were supposed to start showing up at 6:00pm. At 4:45pm (amidst a slew of last minute chores I hadn't counted on) I decided to taste-test the soup. B-L-E-C-H! It was inedible. Often times a dish is just not as amazing as a thought but still good. Nope. Not this. It was gross. So with about an hour until guests arrived, I had a hot crockpot full of a ruined dinner. I decided I would just have to come up with a Plan B fast and ran to the store to find SOMETHING to throw together for 10-15 people expecting dinner. I ended up finding a dry soup base mix for tortilla soup. Six dollars later and with 5 minutes to spare I had dinner ready.



What did I do with the piping hot soup that I couldn’t throw in the trash because it was a whole bunch of chunky piping hot liquid, but couldn’t put down the garbage disposal because it was a whole bunch of chunky piping hot liquid?? I stuck the whole thing in the oven. Yep. I hid the ruined dish and some other random dirty dishes in the oven and just hoped no one looked in there because I didn’t have the time between the last minute grocery store run, last minute cleaning and showering/getting ready to actually do the dishes.



So see? I may be a clean freak and an über planner but I can guarantee that sometimes it’s just a façade. I feel like this entire month has been like this.  I have only blogged 6 times this month and usually I would have approximately 20 posts by now.  Maybe it's time management or maybe I really do have more on my plate.  I'm not sure.  Either way, I haven't abandoned my little bloggy home and I will really try to get back to the daily grind.  It just might take me another week or so.  Thanks for hanging in there with me!  You guys are the best ;)


Have you guys hidden any flaws in your oven lately? Any dishes that went awry? Any dishes that were awesome and you want to pass along? I would love to hear from you!