It’s amazing what a little boredom can do…when I was a kid,
when I would get in trouble (at least weekly), my mom knew the perfect
punishment…grounded to my room. I’m not
the kind of person that likes to sit still for long; I like “doing”
something. So when I got sent to my
room, my mom knew that it would probably become clean, and not just clean, but
well organized and could pass any white glove test (even if I had to go beyond
my punishment time). Well, being home
without my girls is kinda like being grounded to my room, don’t get me wrong, I
enjoy long bike rides, walks around the city or hang out with friends (boy that
almost sounds like an online dating ad).
But at some point, I have to shop, cook and take care of my basic
needs. I’m a bit lazy by nature, so I
look for the best way to feed myself with the minimal effort. Nichole because of the wonderful cook she is
has made my pallet a little more tuned to the joys of food. That means, I’ve got to figure out how to
survive with minimal effort, yet not eat PB&J for every meal or some noodle
in a cup thingy…I look for meals that can feed me for the week. So I’ve tried my hand at becoming a “gourmet
cook”. I can hear you now, what does
being bored have to do with cooking?
Well Nichole the fabulous cook she is can whip out just about any meal
in a couple of hours, while the same meal will take me twice that. So cooking has become the “cleaning my room”
of my boredom (especially on the weekends).
I’ve made myself, a sundried tomato/goat cheese stuffed chicken and now
my latest endeavor moussaka! Now I
picked moussaka because of Greece, loved it and have been craving ever since! However, making it in Slavutich isn’t a small
thing. I can’t just hop to the store to
pick up my ingredients, I have to scour the city for everything I need (hoping
to find everything), In this case I have to actually find beef or lamb
(unbelievable they had veal in the market this weekend…this happens like three
times a year….it was a sign =), but now I have to grind it. Same with the tomato sauce, I have to make
that from scratch (blanch and peal my tomatoes). I’m challenging every cooking skill I have as
well as having to learn some new ones (like making béchamel sauce). After a little more than three hours (not bad
considering I had to grind my own meat) my moussaka is out of the oven and boy
o boy am I excited, it smells and looks perfect! The best part is I was able to find something
to do for three hours and was left with a weeks’ worth of food. I better be careful how much I say or Nichole
might assign me a cook day.
The girls bought me a 1000 piece puzzle
for my birthday and instantly I thought how awesome it was going to be when I
was home alone this summer to assemble it; so after I adjusted my clock I pulled
out my new puzzle and have spent my quiet evenings slowly assembling the puzzle.
Now, there isn’t a lot of space where I
was assembling it (I didn’t realize how much space a puzzle that big took) so I
was careful not to drop any pieces and tried to stay as organized as possible
while constructing it; I was quite shocked that I was missing eight pieces….I
couldn’t even blame the girls for “messing” with the puzzle…I only had myself
to blame. I searched all around the desk
and found six of the pieces quickly…but the other two were still MIA. I spent another thirty-minutes carefully searching
around the house, finally I found them on the carpet in the hall (the best I
can figure is they must have stuck to my arm and fell off) – I don’t know when
this happened, but I’m so glad the house keeper didn’t dispose of them! So after a few agonizing moments of searching
around the house, I finished my puzzle! Thank you
Ellie and Rylie for my birthday gift!
