Thursday, November 13, 2008

Two more days until Jon comes home!

Well, I think so anyways. He should be home either Sunday or Monday, but that depends on when he leaves Kuwait. I haven't heard from him in a while so I'm going crazy wondering when he's getting on that plane! The house is clean for the most part. I just need to vacuum, sweep, and mop and clean off the bar counter that likes to collect weeks of mail and random things that don't find their way back to their homes. I still need to bake his welcome home cake--I never got to do a test run in the yellow ribbon cake pan that I bought, so I'm a little nervous about how it will go. Keep your fingers crossed for me! 

I'm stressing out about work, though. As things usually go, I have a lot of stuff to do before I take this time off. I have one day left and I'm off for 2-3 weeks! My boss is relying on me to take care of some stuff, as our grant is up for renewal and we need more data for the proposal. It really isn't my fault that it isn't done by now. There are several things we had to wait for and we basically have to just let nature run its course first. I really feel bad leaving things unfinished for others to pick up and take care of while I'm gone. But I really don't want to worry about all this anymore. Vacation mode on!

I plan to do a lot of baking while Jon is home. I want to spoil him, and just show him that his wife really is good in the kitchen! I didn't spend that much time cooking or baking while he was home because my daily commute was 75 miles one way....so I didn't get home until about 7 every night. On nights I chose to work out, it was later. The last thing I wanted to do when I got home after a 1.5 hour drive was cook! So when he left I was determined to become a better wife, cleaning more often and spending more time in the kitchen, and what do you know...I actually enjoy it!

For dinner tonight, I made something quick. I haven't cooked since Sunday, so I really wanted to. I didn't get to the commissary this week so I had to make do with what I had on hand (boo...no potatoes). I happened to have some spaghetti squash sitting around so I chopped that baby in half lengthwise and roasted it in the 375F oven for 40 minutes (30 would have been good enough, but I got distracted). When it comes out, let it cool, remove the seeds and junk in the middle and take a fork to the flesh. It's like magic, all the spaghetti-like pieces of squash you collect in your bowl! Just add a little butter and salt--yum! If you haven't tried this type of squash, I definitely recommend it! It's super easy and can be a substitute for rice, potatoes, or pasta. 

Anyways, for the chicken I just heated a little butter and oil in a pan and fried up some shallots, onions, and garlic. I added some chicken, seasoned with salt and pepper, and some baby carrots. The magic ingredient: white wine. I swear by this! White wine is definitely my favorite ingredient to add to any random dish! Some chicken stock also went into this and was allowed to cook until the chicken was done. Well, I actually forgot about this too, as I was scooping out my squash and attempting to caramelize sugar in the oven for my creme brulee I made last night (no picture, sorry!). As a result, the liquid boiled off too much and my onions carmelized, but it didn't taste bad!

Well, it's off to bed. I have a presentation tomorrow and have to get up early to get food for people. I baked dark chocolate madeleines but I should get something healthier as well. Can't wait for this to be over!

2 comments:

loqi said...

Yay - I'm so glad he'll be home soon!

Sister #3 loves spaghetti squash... Maybe I will make it for LT, and just not tell him its a vegetable. That would be a great experiment! Add tomato sauce and see if Mr. I-Hate-Veggies really knows what's up. :-p

As for work - I'm sure you'll have no problem leaving that all behind once Jon is back. :)

Tania said...

You could probably get away with giving LT this squash...it looks like short broken up spaghetti! Evil Loqui! :P