Sunday, July 25, 2010

Martha Stewart I'm not.....

Today, I decided to pull out the crock pot and make apple butter, since I didn't really have plans for the day, and it's an 11 HOUR process making it. I did say 11 hours. The first 6, it just sits there. After you add the sugar, and spices you have to stir it every hour. I'm on hour 8, and the house smells wonderful. Sounds great, right? Could have been, if I had actually had the recipe printed out in front of me when doing it, instead of scribbled down notes. Miles was screaming his head off from wanting to be held, and Alan was on the computer so I was leaning over him, writing furiously as Miles clawed at me from Alan's lap. I got the ingredients right, measurements perfect, but after hour 6 when I went to stir it, I noticed something. It wasn't smooth like all the other apple butters I have seen. Know why? I forgot to peel the stupid apples! Now I get to cook it for all 11 hours, and then spend extra time sorting the peels out. Terrific.

For dinner I made homemade Mac & Cheese (that I got off Carmen's blog), and sauteed garlic zucchini. "Sauteed" makes me sound like a real Chef, like I know what I'm doing, huh? The M & C recipe is from The Pioneer Woman website, and It was sooo good! Definitely 5 stars. It is actually just like the one I make, but it adds an egg, which really holds the whole thing together. And it adds ground mustard, which I only use sometimes. This would have all been fabulous dinner too, if I didn't forget that I had turned the stove on with the pan sitting on it, while I was cutting up the zucchini. I put the butter in to start cooking them, and within seconds had completely smoked out the house! We have no vent system here other than opening windows, and turning the fan to blow it out so I pretty much almost killed us. I almost had everybody drop to the ground to get some oxygen-it was so bad!. After de-smoking the house, I put a new pan on with a little *EVOO so the butter wouldn't burn this time. I grabbed the zucchini, turned toward the stove and proceeded to knock Ben's water all over the floor, as well as the super sharp knife that I had cut the vegetable up with! Why the edge of the counter was a great place to put his ice water is beyond me. Like I state at the top of my blog-I really don't understand guys.

Besides my few "Rookie" mess-ups, dinner was really good. Seriously, I posted the link at the bottom so you can all try it. Ben said he wasn't going to eat it, because he doesn't like Mac & Cheese (which he doesn't, unless it's homemade, and even then he complains. He's a peach.) He ended up going back for seconds. I'll have to let you know about the apple butter after I fish the peels out. I feel like the girl Julie, from the movie "Julie & Julia." I love to try out new recipes, I really do. But getting from printed recipe, to finished product is not pretty. Hazardous, even. But it usually tastes pretty unbelievable.

Oh! Random news of the day: I pulled off on the side of the road, adjacent to my little incident, because I discovered that my friends e-mail address that has been lost for about 2 years, found a week ago, and shoved into my purse-was missing. I decided to just take a chance and see if the little paper had blown into the bushes lining the highway. I go around the car, and see-not the missing e-mail address-but my dollar bill that blew out of my wallet! Unfortunately, I think the e-mail is gone for good. Which sucks really, I miss Katie. But I did find something else I lost. Weird.

*EVOO = Extra Virgin Olive Oil, for those who don't know Rachel Ray.

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