Cooking...a work in a process

I spent most of today cooking. We have been so busy (and gone) lately that I haven't really cooked that much since we have been married. I made a delicious King Ranch Chicken Casserole (see above) right before we left. It was really good! And Jay went back for thirds...so I'd consider it a success. Note: I had to take pictures as evidence that I actually do cook!!!

I really do love to cook, but it just never seems to happen. Now that I have passed the CPA exam and no longer have to spend 4 hours a night studying, I have more time to spend in the kitchen AND tons of new toys to play with! :)

I have been flipping through the new cookbooks that I got for wedding presents and I have been looking at http://www.allrecipes.com/ for some new recipes to try. I highly reccomend this site. There are tons of easy good recipes (with pictures!) to try. It's even searchable.

I am trying to eat more fruits and vegetables and eat healthier in 2008 so I think cooking more often will help. Jay has night class 2 nights a week, but with my handy new grill pan, I can grill chicken and vegetables inside now (for one) so I can still cook for just me when he is gone instead of just heating up a Lean Cuisine.

We are having Jay's brother David and his sweet girlfriend Lucy over for dinner tomorrow night. Jay is going to grill out steaks, and I went ahead and made a salad and twice-baked potatoes for tomorrow night. With crudites and basil buttered french bread, it should be a good meal. I also made brownies for dessert (just a mix, but a good one...Gharadelli double chocolate chip) to serve a la mode. Entertaining is a lot more fun now that we live in a house and have all sorts of cool new serving pieces!

I need to work on cooking less elaborate dishes so I can cook for everyday. When I lived at home, I always fixed more complicated labor-intensive things like lasagna, crab cakes, and chicken parmesean. My parents have a huge kitchen with 2 ovens so it was a lot easier to prepare food. And lets not forget that my mom had all of these handy devices and every spice known to mankind! Now I have my own cool kitchen items. My favorite being the red KitchenAid mixer that my Honey gave me. (I'm quite attached to my matching red toaster too!) And I have no clue how I made it without a food processor!

I'm making blackened chicken for tonight to christen our new Lodge cast-iron skillet (thanks Leigh!).