Cooking Adventure Week 1

The other day, I was sharing with Mike about my desire to someday be a stay-at-home mom, make crafty things, sell them online and then blog about my "stress-free" (ha!) life. This is not the first time we have had this conversation. With all things, he very patiently listened to me, because right now that type of life is just not possible, and might not be for some time yet. I've been trying to not think about it....only that it all I CAN think about.

Mike said that while we pass the time to where maybe that can be for a reality for me, where I am "stress-free" and having only all good days with our future children (Who am I kidding?! I know many SAHM and they have the hardest jobs EVER. Definitely not a stress-free job!!! )...that maybe I should blog each week about a meal that he and I make together. Like that lady who cooked through Julia Child's cookbook. The one they made the movie about.

I thought this was an intriguing idea. My husband, in addition to being sweet, gorgeous and amazing is also a pretty terrific cook. And I hate to cook. HATE IT. So not only can this be something that builds up our marriage but something I can also write about. Win win! :)

So on Monday night, Mike and I made Carol's Pasta Salad - a side-dish that my mom is famous for. It is one of the three things that I can make that turns out okay-ish:

Ingredients:

(1) vidalia onion
(1) green pepper
(1) block of cheddar
(1) block (or slices) of provolone
One box of rainbow pasta swirls
Bottle of Italian Dressing

You can also add salami, pepperoni and olives...anything you want to add really. But I am not a huge fan of salami or olives, and I am only sometimes okay eating pepperoni. So I just thought I'd avoid all three of these. Oh, you can add tomatoes too.



While the water was boiling for the pasta, I started slicing (almost wrote cutting...) the cheese up into tiny little pieces. Mike pitched in and sliced up the onion for me:



Well, okay, here he was just peeling the onion. I've never seen someone so cute peeling an onion before.

Then once the water is boiling, cook the pasta according to the directions on the box. Once they are done, drain them in a colander (we have weekly arguments on whether or not its called a colander or a strainer). Then rinse them in cold water.

Once that is complete, dump in the other ingredients.



Then pour in as much Italian dressing as you want. Once I used a whole bottle. This time I just used a half.

I learned that I would much prefer the Kraft Italian dressing over the the Kroger brand. We go generic in this house for most items because of the great discount we get at the grocery store from Mike's job.

And I didn't get a picture of the finished product, because I am not very good at taking the correct pictures. That's okay. I'll get better at this. So I'll leave you with this picture of Daisy who offered moral support during our cooking adventure the other night.