Mac and Cheese Please

Give me the blue box any night of the week. Tonight I was lucky enough to get handed the blue box and those steamer bags of peas. I haven't had much cooking time in the past week and honestly I've been okay with that! Too bad that will probably change come tomorrow when I've gotta try to apease a picky 10 year old, with an organic mother.

With all this babysitting I've been doing I began to wonder what kinda things I would leave for a babysitter to make. I've also been debating even having kids based on some of the ones I watch, but that's for another discussion on another blog. I suppose if you don't have a sitter on a regular basis then mac and cheese is good but I'm not sure what I would leave if I wasn't home on a regular basis. Wait, who am I kidding what on earth will I make when I'm home cooking for more than just 1 on a daily basis?!

It's thoughts like that which make me feel panicky and jittery inside. Maybe tomorrow I will try something challenging, cause hey she never likes anything I put down so maybe she won't notice the difference.

Happy Cooking!

Pizza or Fish?

It was either going to be a nightmare or a cooking dream. The mom of the kiddos I was babysitting yesterday asked me 'Do you feel comfortable with fish?' Not having the slightest clue what she was asking me I of course nodded yes and continued playing basketball with a size tiny ball and no net. She then proceeded to ask the 6 year old would you rather have tilapia or pizza? What kid wouldn't say pizza!


I found myself at 5:15 staring at a ziplock bag of mostly unfrozen fish. I've never cooked fish in my life. I had been given instructions to put the olive oil in the pan, and cover the pieces of fish in breadcrumbs. So I cut open the bag and began covering the first piece. Once all the pieces were covered I turned on the oven and put the oil in there. I tried to ignore the smell, it wasn't as "fishy" as some but it wasn't pleasant either.


I then had to find some sort of untinsil to flip said fish over with. Does it need to be metal? I used a black plastic spatula. It didn't melt upon contact so I'm thinking that it was an okay decision. I turned the fish three or four times and managed to only get spattered with oil twice. I call that an accomplishment seeing as the oil was popping all over the pan like molten hot lava. 


Nonethe less I managed to find the kiddie plates hidden beneath the good china, make a bag of rice and corn in the microwave (this technology thing works in my favor sometimes) and plopped the food in front of the kids. Amazingly enough they ate it, but a tip to the wise: If you have a babysitter, just order the pizza. 


But hey, I can say I've made fish now!
      

Droopy Cookie Bars

Well I was attempting to whip up a batch of cookie/brownie bars (who even thought of putting this lethal combo together) and the entire situation struck me as something that should enter my blog. Yet I realized that perhaps since I've been playing in the kitchen more often perhaps I should document the entire ride. So here we go, blog number uno which involves those damn bars.


Let me start with something that is vital to the story. My mother likes to double everything, and therfore here in the Flat Rock Inn I stood face to face with not one but two boxes of cookie/brownie mix. I get the ingredients out, water, butter, egg, mix. Not complicated right? Okay well it states to make the brownies first so I begin measuring and it tells me to have melted butter. So I pop that stick into the microwave and continue feeling grand about myself, until I put the butter into the mix. Apparently it meant completely and utterly melted and I suppose I still could make out the outline of a "stick" so...mistake number 1. Mistake number 2 quickly also happens as I realize that I only added half of the amount of ingredients needed based on the fact that we are doubling the damn thing.


At this point the oven has beeped announcing it is time for the items to enter the oven, but we are far from finished. Now I move onto the cookie dough. Since I have already realized my mistake made from the brownies I put the right amount of ingredients. Discreetly taste testing the cookie dough batter, I am choosing to ignore that it takes like crap.


Now I am to pour the brownie mix in and place small round balls of cookie dough "evenly" across the batter. WTF? I am scraping the brownie batter and it's falling at the approximate speed of mollase. Why the heck is this so thick? I've made brownies before, good ones non the less and its never been this thick. As my bicep  begins to detach itself from my bone I scrape the last of the  brownie out and begin to form balls with the cookie dough.


As I continue along my balls are evenly spaced, leaving me with approximately 2/3rd of the cookie dough left behind...Once again WTF? At this point I have gross things in my jewelry (which yes I always forget to remove) and I'm definitely done with being in the kitchen. The remainder of the cookie dough is slung into the pan. Hey at least I remembered to grease that bad boy.


As we speak todays concoction is baking away, I wonder how they will taste.


Bon A Petite!