Easy Victories...

You know that saying, "The toughest battles are the ones worth fighting?" (I really hope that's actually a saying. I don't think I could make one up that sounds so legitmate.) Well, here is what I'm saying to that saying. FALSE - *When it comes to cooking. Perhaps that saying does hold true in the realms of relationships or disciplining your children or standing up for your beliefs, but when it comes to the kitchen, I tend to surrender before the first shot is even fired. I despise cooking. Genuinely get zero enjoyment out of tracking down a recipe that sounds good, then trying to hunt for all of the ingredients in our cupboards, then struggling to get the timing right for all the different pieces to be ready to go on the table at the same moment. (Trust me, this is even harder when you have one pan, one decent sized pot, and only one knife that actually performs its primary function of cutting.) And, as fate would have it, I am married to a man who seriously relishes his right to eat. He is always hungry. ALWAYS. But I guess, what man doesn't and isn't? Thankfully, he helps me out enormously in the culinary department. He can just throw a bunch of stuff in the crock pot or fill up our lonely skillet and tah dah! Edible excellence. Let's be honest, I usually let him do the cooking and then do my part by washing the dishes.

All this being said, there are still some times when I want to attempt to be the domestic queen that I certainly should have time to be. And one of those random times was yesterday. We restocked our cabinets and mini-fridge in the afternoon with a delivery from Tesco, so I suppose I was feeling obliged to utilize our most recent acquisitions. What to make, what to make? We had pork chops, diced beef, minced beef, or chicken. Since we have had chicken for the previous kagillion meals, and I was not feeling beef as "what's for dinner" (despite the catchy slogan), pork chops won. Next question, what to do with the chops? The much loved, but perhaps overly used, apple and brown sugar concoction? No. I consulted allrecipes.com. No luck. What's a girl to do? Well, when all else fails, I say you should just aim to make something as pretty and as colorful as possible. Result: Pork chops with Hawaiian seasoning (courtesy of a Christmas gift from my family), fruit juice with pineapple in it (to keep with the Hawaiian theme,) yellow bell pepper, red bell pepper, onion, and garlic. With mashed potatoes on the side. The hardest step was getting enough of the rub to stick on the semi-frozen chops, but after that, it was so simple! Easy victory #1!

Hubby was pretty proud of my wifely creativity. I was proud that I didn't have to spend hours researching and acquiring a proper recipe. For once, I threw something together at the last minute, and it turned out tasty. Whoop, whoop! However, one Modern Family episode later, we were both pondering our dessert prospects. Since we had already blazed our way through our Christmas candy, our options were pretty limited. Bananas or clementines (but who really wants something healthy for dessert?) A handful of assorted chocolates were not really tripping the trigger either. So, my only logical option was........PINTEREST! Five minutes later, problem solved. Nutella cookies could be whipped up in no time with minimal fuss.

Nutella Cookies Recipe:
1 cup of flour
1 cup of Nutella
1 egg
1/2 cup of sugar
2 tiny drops of vanilla extract (I added that of my own accord, but it's probably not necessary.)
Mix it all together (with your hands, unless you have a spatula, which I don't)
Bake at 350F (or 175C) for 8 minutes

Presto! Delicious, gooey Nutella in cookie form. Easy victory #2! If I can do it, anybody can. So, back to my original point... yesterday I learned that I don't have to ferociously fight the kitchen in order to come out on top. It just so happens that I put forth minimal effort and got maximum results. My new motto is, "When it comes to the kitchen, the tough battles aren't worth fighting; so fly by the seat of your pants, use groups of prepackaged seasonings, include Nutella whenever possible, and you won't starve afterall." Catchy, huh? Maybe not the best or most inspiring adage to live by, but it worked this one time, and I'm sticking to it.

PS - It's snowing in Cambridge!!! Woo hoo! It's not accumulating, and it seems to be a precipitation combination of snow flurries and light rain, but I'm calling it SNOW! And it's magical. Now for some mid-morning tea and this week's Beth Moore audio session. "Oh what a beautiful morning! Oh what a beautiful day! I've got a beautiful feeling, everything's going my way." If we weren't running short on our internet allowance for the month, I would totally find a way to watch the musical "Oklahoma" right about now. Ya'll come back now, ya hear?