I have a serious habit of not eating so others can eat, even when there is no danger of running out too soon. It’s almost like an inborn trait. I continuously save things for others… like cream cheese. I save that for my husband. I rarely ever eat anything with cream cheese. I settle for the “cant believe this is not butter knock-off” in the bottom of the fridge. I won’t even eat bagels if I think we might run out soon… We get to the last bag and I leave them for my husband.

I do the same thing with turkey dogs, milk, chicken nuggets, and cereal (to name a few). Unless it is something I bought specifically for myself that no one else can have, I will save it for the others in my household. I dare call it food non-compulsive disorder… I always eat out of calculated risk of not having for others.

Am I the only one?

Now I wish that I had listened to my craving. I received 2 full sized jars of mustard: hearty spicy brown and harvest coarse ground. Both have their merits alone and combined with other ingredients. My husband and I both tried them in the practical ways most people would eat mustard:

My husband did not care too much for the extra spice of the coarse mustard on the hot dogs, but thought that the more mild hearty spicy was better. He also preferred the hearty spicy on his sandwiches. I can go for the spice of coarse. I adore spicy mustard, the spicier the better.

I even made dinner with it last night. My husband got the savory hearty spicy brown covered pork chops:

He enjoyed them, but he actually wanted a bit more of his usual flavorings. After dousing them in a bit of sazon, they were perfect.

I had the mustard chicken with the coarse mustard:

Talk about delicious! I have to get some more boneless chicken to put that on. I thawed the chicken, dried it, covered it in coarse mustard, then breaded the pieces with my homemade breadcrumbs. Bake 20 minutes and there you go! Perfection.

Now, for the unconventional ways I used the mustard. I enjoy the kick of the spice, as I mentioned before. So what did I do with the mustard?

That’s right! I slathered the hearty spicy on my quesadillas. I did try the coarse on it, but with the ingredients it was a bit much. I just finished them off with the hearty spicy and called it lunch. I added the coarse brown as a topping on my cheese pizza. Then I took the coarse brown and mixed it in with my light italian dressing to pour over my homemade chef salad. I had to have seconds on everything! I just could NOT stop eating these mustards.

I was so pleased with these mustards that I am definitely going to make a point of finding them the next time I run out of spicy mustard!

Tags: grey+poupon, mustard

We have been contemplating grilling out for the past 2 years we have lived here. I have seen some pretty nice natural gas grills around our complex. We aren’t technically supposed to have them, but no one really cares about the rules here. They are more like guidelines. Anyway, the things we look for in a natural gas grill are the size, portability, and cost. We need something compact that will fit on our side porch. It needs to be light, so we can drag it around the premises rather easily and quickly. The cheapest price for the best grill we can get is always a good thing.

What are you looking forward to this summer?

I want this so bad I can feel it! I was just lamenting over my mixer and how it is on its last legs. I hope that I win this one so I don’t have to continue lamenting. Seriously, with the amount of time I take to bake and do things from scratch, this would be an awesome addition to my kitchen. The yellow would even look nice on my countertop!

Well, for many people this is the last day they have to get their last presents. Thankfully, I finished up what I needed to do yesterday. No fighting through crowds and traffic for me. I can only imagine the backups. Last night my husband saw a six car pile up and watched a three car pile up happen at a red light. People are just not paying attention and ending up paying dearly for it.

For me, today is the last day of cleaning and preparation for our Christmas Eve soiree. I am roasting 2 chickens, mashing potatoes, and heating some corn. The rest of the feast will consist of my aunt’s famous macaroni and cheese, shrimp, artichoke spinach dip, crab cake dip, coquito, and LOVE.

Here are the recipes that I like for roasted chicken and coquito.

Tags: recipes, roasted+chicken, coquito, christmas, christmas+eve, cooking

Okay so here is my list, flashed forward to show what I have done and what I don’t. I did the veggie prep for the turkey already. I figure if I bake the cornbread and the yogurt cake tonight, they will just have to be warmed up tomorrow after the turkey is done baking. Technically, I could do the mousse tonight, too. The only issue I have with any of this is that I have to use the mixer to make this stuff and it’s 1am. The kid is asleep and I don’t want to scare him to death. I might just have to get up at 8am and do the cakes so by 9 the turkey will be ready to go in the oven. Hmm… yeah okay so here we go:

8am cake and cornbread
8:30am  prep turkey for oven
9am cake and cornbread def. done, turkey into oven
9:10am start everything else.

I will have to blog somewhere in there.

Why?

Because blog is what I do.

Tags: turkey+day, thanksgiving+dinner, thanksgiving, blogging

Right now I am making a list of the things I need to prep for tomorrow.
Our menu consists of:

• My special garlic turkey
• My mother’s smoked turkey
• Mashed potatoes (from scratch)
• Gravy (from scratch)
• Stove top stuffing (hubby’s favorite)
• Chocolate Mousse
• Yogurt Cake
• Rice and Beans (espanol style)
• Cornbread
• Cranberry Sauce
• Deviled Eggs
• Corn

I think that’s it. We will see what mom brings. I know she is bringing her awesome sweet potato pie. I already bought the Cool Whip. That reminds me, I have to take them out of the freezer so they are nice and thawed before tomorrow. My turkey only just went into the fridge yesterday and is already almost completely thawed out. All together we will have about 26 pounds of turkey. No pork this year. I don’t really like ham that much, and no one really misses it after all the other food.

Right now I have prep work. Cutting, peeling, mixing, and whatnot getting ready to just throw those things together tomorrow.

I love cooking big meals like this (once in a while). It gives me a freedom to use the cooking rythym God granted me. The kid likes to help me, too. I might make him some jello so he has something to look forward to that has no milk in it for dessert tomorrow.

YAY!

Tags: thanksgiving+dinner, thanksgiving

My husband found that the pancakes were “nasty” and therefore promptly pushed them aside. I enjoy them thoroughly, so it was like “more for me!”.

Honestly, though, he hurt my self-esteem. He doesn’t get that when he says my food is nasty there is an equation that goes something like this:

Sure, it shouldn’t be that way … but it is. His reaction made this happen to me:

See how that happened? I hate math, but these are equations of the heart. His reaction to my food quality added up to Nasty. Nasty is equal to Me.

There you have it. A mathematical analysis of why I got so PO’d this morning that I threw his food into the kitchen.

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Tags: math, self+esteem, self+worth, cooking, food