Graph Paper

A couple of years ago, after acquiring my mom's old garden tiller, my hubby decided to grow some corn. This was awesome!

Nothing like corn fresh from the garden with a hamburger in the summer time!

Nom, nom, nom!

Well that one garden has expanded into four and hubby has become obsessed with the layout of them.

So much so that last night he spent 2.5 hours graphing them.

Yes...he used graph paper.

Really, he did!

He measured three of the gardens (one is all blueberry bushes) and then used a calculator to figure out how many rows of each vegetable he could plant based on how far apart they have to be.

I watched season 4 of Suits.

After we got into bed, he said to me, "How do your feel about herbs?"

"Um...Herbs? What do you mean herbs?"

"You know" he said, "Thyme, basil, oregano..." This from the man who didn't know how to boil water six years ago.

"Yeah sweetie," I replied, "I know what herbs are."

He then went on to explain that he wanted to grow them to cook with.

Whew!

For a second there, I was a little concerned that he was suddenly into something kinky that involved bedtime and a weird desire to use basil oil!

I told him that in all the years I'd had gardens and tried growing the herbs I'd yet followed through with anything. I've used them in some of the cooking but never dried them before. I just let them go to seed or just die in the garden.

Apparently, he's got his heart set on growing the herbs to use in his canning adventures. How I 'feel' about them doesn't really matter...he'd already added them to is graph paper.

Dark Grilled Cheese

If you ask any of my friends and my hubby, they will tell you that I am a pretty good cook and I make a mean cake. So why is it that three times this month I have managed to burn my soup and grilled cheese sandwiches?

The grilled cheese, I must confess, is my culinary Achilles heel. I'm just not patient enough to wait for it to brown up properly and tend to have the heat turned up too far. Thankfully, my hubby says he likes them "dark." Honestly, I think he's just taking pity on me. Either way, I don't care, he eats them and I don't have to throw them out and start over!

The soup...well, I just forget!

I put it on a back burner with the heat turned down and walk away to take care of the boys lunch. Between 1-2 HOURS later I will be at the sink making the boys their afternoon bottles and I will hear the distinct bubbling sound that only boiled down soup can make and then rush to take it off the burner. Like that last half-second is miraculously going to save it right? Sort of like leaving the lights on in your car at the mall and running the last 10 feet through the parking lot to shut them off and magically saving the battery. Anyway, I digress....

Burning things is not a norm for me. I like to be in the kitchen. My center island is a commercial prep table because I spend that much time in the kitchen (it was thousands cheaper than an actual island) and I am a good cook. I have traded recipes with professional chefs!

It's the kids!

I get so distracted with the boys that I completely forget what I am doing.

Imagine my horror!  I have been told by multiple professional chefs that I am an "excellent cook" and am now reduced to burning canned soup?!

I used to make gourmet meals like shitake mushroom risotto and chicken marsala. My friends used to call me for cooking advice...now I burn soup.

Now that it's cooling off, we're in comfort food season. On a good night, I'll get the chicken in the oven and rice in the cooker in time to put something on the table that resembles a balanced meal.

Bad nights we're eating "dark" grilled cheese sandwiches and burnt soup.