Gruyere and Gouda

My lovely mother recently gifted me with some 10 yr old cooking magazines that were collecting dust in her basement. This post describes my first journey through one of the Cuisine recipes:

Tonight I made a super yummy (and not so healthy) gourmet version of the staple mac ‘n cheese. Didn’t realize that I’d be contrasting it so nicely with our Kraft 87 cent mac ‘n cheese that we enjoyed last night! This one had, as the subject says, some real good cheeses. I should have thought more about the price of this meal, but now that I know, I won’t be cooking it again for just any old meal.

Husband helped grate the cheese while I sauteed the shallots in butter and then added some flour, chicken stock and heavy whipping cream… yum. Then of course, the macaroni and the cheeeese.  I did totally forget to buy the fresh chives… I always seem to forget one main ingredient. I’m still new at this though!

Topped it off with some home-made sourdough bread crumbs (with butter and salt of course!).  It’s quite fun to actually make bread crumbs from scratch, as lame as it really is when you think about it. Not like I’m making the bread, but I did shove it into my food processor! Now that’s hard work! 

We only allowed ourselves one small bowl each (out of a 6 serving dish), and our stomachs now feel like we have a growing child in them, but we’re much more motivated to hit the gym in the morning, so maybe this meal was a good thing?

I’d like to think so… in moderation.

Mish-Mash

So we haven’t technically had internet these past couple weeks, but we occasionally pick up someone’s signal nearby and can maybe check email once a day. I don’t know if that’s considered stealing or not, but I figure if someone doesn’t want others to use their signal, they would lock it up, and perhaps they are okay with sharing it with others. I think eventually we will get our own wireless internet, and I’d be fine allowing others to use it… it just seems silly that there’s probably over 30 people in our building and we all have our own internet when it would make so much more sense to have only a few connections and share it between us all….

But anyway… enough about that…

I’ve been struggling lately to really study for my nursing boards as I would like to be doing. I have just a day under a month now until my exam, and there is most definitely plenty of material for me to cram into my head again, but it is difficult now that I’m done with school to be motivated to study again, especially without any sort of schedule. I just have to be ready for my exam (and know just about everything I’ve learned over the past two years in nursing school, somehow) by July 10th. Must keep plugging away!

In other news, we got a fish last night for our fish tank! It’s a 55 gallon tall tank, so it’s pretty big. For the past week we’ve been letting the water filter and get ready for some cute fishies to inhabit it… and finally yesterday we got our first “hardy” fish, an Oscar fish. We named him Wally, since we got him at Wall-Mart. He’s super cute and enjoying his new home it seems! At first I was all worried about the little guy because he was ‘resting’ at the bottom of the tank and he wasn’t eating any of the little pellets we put on the top for him, but eventually he must have because they’re gone now! This morning we woke up to a very lively and active fishy, and he really likes to swim through all the bubbles that come from the two bubbler strips… whatever they’re called.

And on another subject (I really should make all these different posts, but oh well)… I’ve been blessed to have read some super good spiritual growth books lately when I take breaks from studying (or maybe it’s the other way around… I take breaks from those books to study nursing? Hmm…). One of the books is about humility and it’s been very convicting. I’ve known for years that pride is the ultimate sin and that God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble. And that he looks to the one who has a broken and contrite heart. I’ve noticed just how pride permeates into so many areas of struggle, whether it be with my words toward John, my lack of confession/repentence toward others and to God, and my laziness in cleaning our apartment and in studying for my exam. It’s all rooted in my own self-righteousness and pride. Some good practical tips I’ve taken ahold of from book (Humilty: True Greatness, by C.J. Mahaney) are to begin each day acknowledging my dependence on the Lord for everything, since all that I have and am given is totally from Him and not myself, and also at the end of each day to thank the Lord for the day and for all he has provided. Pretty basic, I know, but it’s amazing how easily you can stop doing even those two simple things which really help battle the sin of pride. Some other very convicting things… I have been realizing that when I’m critical of others (which I so often am), it’s rooted in my pride and in focusing on what is wrong with others (as if I have it all figured out, ha!)… when I really should be focusing on the evidences of grace and of the Spirit that I observe in others. Of course there are definitely times to discern if one of your brothers/sisters is sinning and is unrepentent of it and then to exhort them, but that shouldn’t always be my focus (or shouldn’t be the majority of what I focus on). How encouraging it can be to others to point out how you’ve seen fruits of the Holy Spirit and of spiritual gifts at work in them and to let them know! I hope and pray to do this so much more, by God’s grace alone.

Oh (yes, more randomness!)… I’ve been running outside more often!  I love running around the area that we live in! Slowly but surely I’ll be gaining more endurance and strength and then I’ll start going downtown with John to the local Y, where he runs to a couple times a week to workout (and then runs back… crazy man). Praise God, though, for helping me get back into a more active lifestyle. Feels great, and I hope it continues.

One last random tid-bit…I am LOVING cooking more!!! Another praise to God! I tried, I think, cooking five new recipies over the past week! I plan to continue trying more of them and compiling a great recipe book for our family, and who knows, by the time we have kids I’ll have plenty of ones ready to go!

moving onto better (yummier) topics

I realize my last post was a rather complaint oriented post… this one will hopefully not be! I’ve been feeling better the past few days now and am just about back to health!  Now onto other topics-Recently I’ve discovered that I really really enjoy cooking. I didn’t have hardly any experience cooking until I got married last summer, and I’ll admit, I was more scared and overwhelmed than excited about it.  Slowly but surely I’ve tried simple recipes, some more complicated (and frustrating/messy), and now I’m feeling like I might actually become a good cook sooner than later! Last week I made a white chicken chili (thanks to a lovely older lady from my church sharing a recipe with me!) and it was yum-o! (Sorry but yes, I do like a little Rachael Ray now and then) Only bad part was that it was probably a recipe for 6-8 servings and there are only… two of us. So, after 4 days of eating the same thing, I started getting sick of it. Then, to solve the problem, I made my first pan of meatloaf! Thanks to my mother-in-law for her very simple recipe!  Husband surely liked it too. Now, I’m starting to dabble with the idea of purchasing some international foods cookbooks, like Indian and Italian foods. Husband has already given up on indian food because of two bad experiences, but I am determined to help him realize that he does indeed like it! My sister, who is big into cooking, recommended some cookbooks to me and I’ve found some more. Do any of you (other than my sister!) have any suggestions? Websites are nice too…