Does a cheese board count? Why yes, it does!

So, here we are. You and me. My first post, which will be about one of my favorite things. Food!

Although I've always loved to bake, when it comes to "real" meals, the kitchen is a little intimidating for me.
I follow recipes exactly to the word, am successful probably 75% of the time and have been heard saying (or thinking), "I wish I was one of those people who could just throw something together and have it come out great!" That's about as far as it ever got. No real effort to achieve the goal, just a lot of bellyaching. It doesn't help that my fiance (aka Homie) is a fantastic chef. Two words: LEARNED HELPLESSNESS. Why teach myself when someone right here can do it faster and better? Because I need skills. That's why.

So, with my new goals giving me inspiration, and a quick trip to the store, I came up with (drum roll)...the SNACK BOARD.



Oh yes, friends. This counts. You know why? Because I'd never done it before. Yup. Bread, cheese, olive oil and some strawberries. Definitely a "difficult" category in the cookbook, right? Well, it made me really happy, Homie loved it (the shock on his face alone was priceless) and a small success like this gave me inspiration for a great dinner as well...with an APPETIZER!!

Which leads us to our dinner hour.

I made bruschetta. Again, not a difficult thing to "throw together" but I did it. And I didn't even need to check with Martha (okay, maybe I took a little peek about toasting the bread correctly, but that's it). I drizzled olive oil on slices of french baguette and tossed those suckers in the oven at 400 for about 5 minutes. I threw together tomatoes, garlic, basil and olive oil, dropped a spoonful of this goodness on each little "toast" and popped them back in for another five minutes. Drizzled a little balsamic vinegar, and Voila! Appetizer!



Now, for the main course. The star of the show.
Shrimp Parmesan with white wine garlic sauce and spaghetti with panko-crusted mozzarella slices.
I admit, I was a little intimidated by the flour, egg, panko, egg panko situation. I thought, for sure, the mozzerella would be a melting mess, but I was wrong. That plus getting everything to finish right on time was a little stressful, but, let me tell you, it was easy. It was relatively quick. And it was DELICIOUS. The best part was, I actually had a glass of wine toward the end of my cooking experiment. That certainly melted the stress away.

The recipe was from the website "43 Things" if you'd like to try it yourself!




So, my lessons for this day of cooking?
Something as simple as a rolled up piece of prosciutto can make you feel like a chef.
Balsamic is my new best friend (yum!)
It will be great to have fresh veggies right out the back door come summer time (new garden boxes are being placed now!)
A few sips of wine can help you take it down a couple.
Try to plan two meals at once. Not necessarily leftovers, but two recipes using basically the same ingredients.

After the panko was so good (like little mozzerella sticks), I used it to make a panko crusted chicken the next night. Added the wine and garlic sauce again, and a whole new dinner was made. A huge challenge for me, is cooking and eating well when Homie is at work. I'll just grab a bowl of cereal (or fast food junk) just so I don't have to mess with it. No mas! I've turned over a new leaf!



So, this leads us to the most recent meal...tonight's meatloaf, mashed potatoes and roasted carrots.
Believe it or not, I had never made meatloaf in my entire life until tonight. With Martha's help, my first experiment was relatively successful. I didn't realize meatloaf is basically just like a big hamburger. I'm not a huge red meat eater (no ulterior motive...just don't really crave it), but in an effort to satisfy my man's "need" for red meat, I added this to the schedule for tonight. It only took about 15 minutes to throw it together, but the cooking took the longest.

See Martha's website for the recipe:
http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/classic-meatloaf



Lessons for meatloaf:
Make sure you have a cooking thermometer, and that the center of the loaf is at least 160 degrees. Mine took about 15 more minutes than the high end of the recipe recommendation.
A friend made this and suggested putting the garlic in the loaf as well as in the ketchup you baste with. Didn't do it tonight because I wanted to try the recipe exactly as-is, but will do it next time.
Be careful with the bread crumbs. I used store bought crumbs and had to guess on the measurement. My crumbs ended up being kind of chunky, so they didn't break up very well when mixed with the meat. Make sure the crumbs are not so lumpy so you don't get a mouthful of breadcrumbs (sorry, Homie) :-)

So, folks. That's it for the first post of my new project. I'm sure things will get prettier and more helpful as we move along. I really am quite lost with all the options they give you in this little blog world. I promise I'll get a little better every day, the pictures will get clearer, and hopefully our skills improve as well.

Remember...when life gives you lemons...make the best lemonade of all time! Goodnight!