Experiments in the Kitchen

Yesterday was just a wonderful Colorado day. The temperature started in the low 30's but climbed to 66 degrees by the afternoon. I left work at 4:30, rocked out 40 minutes on the elliptical and rode home.

I had been a good doobie and got groceries on Sunday, so I went home eager to cook up some dinner. I had picked up the ingredients for my homemade red sauce, so I quick threw that together and put it on the stove to simmer. I had dug my up my dad's delicious lemon-scented turkey meatballs recipe, but was without lemons to zest or squeeze, so I made my own variation. The recipe also calls for bread pieces soaked in milk, but I made do with breadcrumbs and little blips of milk poured into the mixing bowl. Instead of garlic cloves, I just threw in some garlic powder, mixed everything up and hoped for the best. About halfway through making the meatballs into little balls, I got bored and just made two big patties that I figured I could use as turkey burgers for lunch or dinner.

Yum! I'm ready to be cooked!

When it came time to actually cook the meatballs, I realized my fatal flaw of the evening: My solitary skillet was already in use cooking the red sauce - whoops! I made do with my pancake cooker (ok, a griddle, let's be honest, I don't use it for much else) and considered it an excellent example of making do with what you have.

Creative Cooking 101

When the meatballs were just about done, I threw some pasta on the stove, which was the first time I think I've ever had three burners going at once! I had plenty of meatballs leftover. I froze two sets of three and left the third set in the fridge for later this week. I froze one of the patties and also left the other for possibly a lunch experiment.

Tada!

All in all, I was exercised, fed, and showered at 7pm, when How I Met Your Mother, the only show I faithfully watch each week. It is still a bit crazy to me, the pace of Denver. In DC, by 7pm I would just be getting started at my gym class at Gold's, racing to make it home by 8 to make dinner during the commercials of HIMYM. After reading in the hot tub some more (seriously, when I own my own house, I am getting one - I use the one in my building daily), I packed up my bag for the next morning and even ironed some clothes. It was the most productive day I'd had in ages, with a fully logged MFD and a semi-stocked fridge!