Cooking

Since we've moved to Key West I have had a little more time on my hands to play around in the kitchen. I've always enjoyed cooking, although according to some of my past co-workers, it's not really cooking when you rely on pre-made goods to make a dish. So with all this extra time I have, I have started to expand my horizons and start cooking and baking more from scratch and I have to say that I am really enjoying it.

When we first got here, I started slow and made my first pork loin. Then I used the leftovers from that and made my first chinese lo mein. Both, by the way, were delicious. My mom then got me a great cookbook for Christmas and I had been making recipes out of that (like pizza spaghetti and chocolate mint cake) until my wonderful mother in law got me my next awesome cookbook. The Pioneer Woman has brought me my next round of delicious meals. So far I have made meatloaf (with bacon wrapped around it), chicken pot pie, peach cobbler, french pastry puffs, and tomorrow I venture off into biscuits. I even managed to make fresh strawberry muffins the other day!

It may sound silly that I have never made a pork loin or a meatloaf before, but I just never found the time or the energy to do it. Now I am fortunate enough to have a little extra time to make such wonderful home made meals. It will probably only last another 14 weeks and then I will be on hiatus for a while. But I do hope to get back to cooking again after our little girl gets here. I've enjoyed putting a little more love in to our family meals. And I know that Zach is really enjoying it too :)