The Spice of Life.....

That's a dumb title, but it's all I've got tonight.

I write and joke all the time about the fact that I don't cook. That's an exaggeration to begin with, because I DO cook. I generally cook five nights a week, Sunday through Thursday. It's just that if I grill hamburgers (yeah, Mr. Perfect won't even do THAT because it looks too much like cooking) and throw some potato chips on a plate, I don't consider that real cooking.

I CAN cook, and most of the time I can manage to throw together a decent meal. I try to mix things up, which is difficult when I'm cooking for a diabetic who would prefer to eat nothing but steak and potatoes. Take tonight for example. Last week we had meatloaf and mashed potatoes. (Unlike many men, Hubby actually LIKES meatloaf.) Because I didn't want to get in a rut of preparing the same old thing, tonight we had meatballs and potato packets. The meatballs were made with the exact same ingredients as the meatloaf, just rolled into balls instead of a loaf. The potato packets are stolen from Pioneer Woman and I think they're yummy.

I'm also amazed at people who say they enjoy cooking. That it relaxes them. They do it as a hobby. Excuse me?

One thing that is lacking in my cooking (other than the want to) is the knowledge of how to use spices. I rely on recipes a lot of the time just because I am clueless when it comes to spices. How do people like Pioneer Woman learn what spices go together and what they go WITH? How do you know how much? Some recipes call for 1/2 teaspoon of something and 1/4 teaspoon of another. One-fourth of a teaspoon? Seriously?

When I moved in with Hubby, he had the chore of emptying out my kitchen cabinets. Even though I had only lived there for about 5 months and it was a tiny place with a tiny kitchen, he was overwhelmed with how many cans (boxes? tins? bottles? packages?) of spices I had. Poor guy. He had been eating out of cans, and he probably thought SURELY someone with that many spices had some rudimentary knowledge of how to use them?

I guess I could take a cooking class to learn more about spices. But I might accidentally learn some other stuff about cooking.

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On a somewhat related note, I had my walk in the park spiced up just a little more than I wanted this afternoon. I went alone because Hubby and Gus were tuckered out from painting all day. I had my MP3 player and was ready for the long route, since going home just meant I had to cook dinner. I turned right at the end of the bridge for the long route and strode purposefully toward a huge black snake. I stopped, he remained still, I stared, he stared, then I turned around and let him have that part of the path. Fifty minutes was long enough to walk after all. What a time NOT to have my iPhone with me.......