Domesticated

I am constantly amazed at how domestic I've become - I really enjoy doing things around the house - even cleaning and yard work! One of the things I've gotten really into lately is cooking. Tom and I found early on that we came from two totally different backgrounds when it comes to the kitchen. I came from a household where both of my parents cooked - by and large, they actually cook the same things just in different ways. I'm used to two kinds of potato salad, meatloaf, cole slaw, etc. My parents cook traditional Southern dishes in the traditional Southern way - a very meat and three kind of attitude with recipes and methods that have been passed down through generations. My mom uses recipes for formal things like Thanksgiving/Christmas dinners, but my dad just operates on the pinch of this, smidge of that philosophy. Bottom line, both of them cook at least 95% of the time without a recipe and make 95% of what they cook from scratch. This is the exact antithesis to what Tom is used to.

His mom was the only one that cooked. She makes a lot of casseroles - things that are a whole meal in one dish basically. They make Jiffy cornbread and gravy out of a pouch, and they NEVER cook anything without a recipe.

This has been one of the many ways we've grown through our relationship. If you know us, you also know that I'm Protestant and Tom's Catholic, and we go to both churches every Sunday - we have for years. Our differences in cooking have been very much like our differences in worship - we have grown so much by experiencing each other's traditions. Not only did we learn about how the other half lives, so to speak, but we learned more about ourselves through these explorations.

So, exactly as you might expect, Tom and I went about learning how to cook just like we were raised. I would come up with these crazy concoctions out of whatever I had in the pantry at the time, and Tom would carefully select a recipe and make a grocery run for those ingredients. I make it a challenge to wait as long as I possibly can to go to the store by pulling together whatever I have in the pantry. I am proud to say that after almost 7 years together, we've rubbed off on each other nicely. I regularly utilize Food Network for new recipes, and Tom (when once petrified at the idea of cooking without a recipe) has thrown a pinch of ambiguity into his analytical life by branching out of his recipe bondage.

The past few days are a perfect example - a veritable amalgam of our family traditions. Get ready for the slideshow :-)

I have been hearing Tom reminisce fondly about his mom's homemade juice for years, and in the many times I've been to his parents' house, I haven't had the priviledge of trying it for myself. This past weekend, we remedied that! We spent the weekend at the in-laws' and made homemade apple juice, orange juice, and carrot juice. Here's what we started with -

After some washing and chopping, we ended up with apples and carrots in this configuration -

The oranges took a little more work. They needed to be peeled. I've never used a citrus peeler before, but after one time this weekend, I will never go back to my old ways of just using my fingers. This thing was awesome! Take a look at my handiwork :-)

 First, you take the peeler and score the orange all the way around. Then, you use the other end of the peeler to pry up the peel. Below, you see my first completed orange - the "fruit of my labor' if you will :-)

Here you have it - my bowl of completely (and beautifully I think...) peeled oranges along with my crowning achievement - I was able to peel a whole orange in only two pieces! I'm a dork, I know, but it was pretty exciting :-)

Next, we put them into the juicer, and out came the juice. The orange and the apple were really good! The carrot - not so much. It tasted like dirt - literally. I just couldn't stomach it, but I figure 2 out of 3 ain't bad (as the song goes).

I'll leave you with a few more tasty treats from my kitchen so far this week! Last night, I made salisbury steak (hamburger patties, onions, mushrooms, beef bullion, and cream of mushroom soup served on toast!). It turned out really well!

Tom really enjoyed it, and Daisy wanted some, too!

Then, this morning, I was actually able to get up and fix breakfast - scrambled eggs with ham, onions, tomatoes, and cheese - my favorite!

 Unfortunately, we ended last night on a rather bad note. I accidentally left my phone outside, and Daisy made it her new chew toy. The back looks like it was melted over a fire, and the front is all chewed up including missing the letter K entirely. Amazingly, the thing still works, and this wouldn't be such a tragedy since I don't need the letter K very often, except for the fact that the apostrophe is also on the letter K. I certainly use that a lot. As a former copy editor, it really bugs me to not use corrent puncuation. So if you receive a correspondence from me in the next little while with poor grammar or puncuation, please forgive me and blame Daisy ;-)

Lastly, I mentioned that some friends and I went to see Wicked at the Fox Theater recently. Here we are after the awesome show!

Until next time...