I Spend Most of My Time In the Kitchen

For reals.

Take today. First I made mayonnaise.* Once upon a time, I thought that mayo would be super difficult to make, like hollandaise or baguettes. Not true. It totally worked and only took 10 minutes, so if you have a blender or food processor, dude, you have to try it (then you can skip all the unneccessary weird stuff in the grocery store jar). Add more salt and Dijon as desired. The coolest part (apart from avoiding the unnecessary weird stuff) is how it magically turns into thick, white mayo before your eyes! Ahh!!

Yes. I'm a dork. You don't have to say it.

Anyway, then I made baked macaroni and cheese, a halved and tweaked version of Smitten Kitchen's recipe: less cheese and butter, more milk and salt, whole wheat penne, plus two cans of albacore and half a bag of frozen peas. Egad. This stuff rocks my world. And now there's leftovers, because not even we can polish off an entire 9x9 pan of pasta.

Then I made bread dough from Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois' cool cookbook, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. I've been fiddling with this method (wet dough with a slow cool rise) since we got married, and while the finished product has never been bad, it could use some practice. One thing that has always worked out is sandwich rolls. So that is what my big glass jar of dough is going to make-- that, and pizza this weekend.

Then I cleaned the fridge and the sink and the microwave . . . and the Kitchenaid and the teakettle . . . and ran the dish rack through the dishwasher . . . and everything smelled like vinegar and baking soda. But golly, it was clean!

Brief interlude, in which I did miscellaneous housekeeping-y things. Then I went to the grocery store and came back with a bunch of reduced-price meat. So the turkey sausage and hamburgers went into the freezer, ready for meals later this month.

Now, I'm baking chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. I like this recipe, using only half a cup of brown sugar and baking it for a little longer on a baking stone. They're crisp and chewy and rather lovely.

No, I don't always cook this much in one day. :o) Today was kind of a doozy . . . tomorrow I'm only planning to make dinner!

*addendum: I used white vinegar and after a few days it was too . . . vinegar-y. So lemon juice next time.