Just When I Thought it was Safe to Relax

So our production of The Crucible is finally/already over. It's amazing how something I started at the end of November (rehersals starting Jan 17) feels like it was so long when really we worked so quickly to open on Feb 17th! Anyway, it was a fantastic experience but I'm relieved to have one less thing on my plate to worry about.
Saturday I got to do some cooking. With all the long nights of performances and loads of homework, we've been slacking and spending way too much on takeout. I made lentil soup, starting with a recipe from Good Eats 2 and then tweaking it with what I had in my kitchen and came up with this:
Dice: 2-3 carrots, 1/2 onion, 1/2 red bell pepper and cook in large pot w/ 1 tbs olive oil and salt over med high heat until onion is translucent. Add 4 cups chicken broth, 1-2 cups water, 1/2 lb lentils (rinsed and sorted), 3 tbs tomato puree. Corriander, cumin, celery seed, and fresh ground pepper to taste. Bring to boil then simmer covered for 45 mins. Puree in batches and serve.

I've been craving cookies and got the idea for these yummy creations.
Chocolate-Cranberry-Walnut Chunk Cookies 
1/2 cup shortening
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp molassas
1 tsp baking soda
pinch salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
milk chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, chopped walnuts, dried cranberries
Enough milk to bring dough together.
Bake at 350 for about 8 minutes
I started with a basic chocolate chip cookie recipe and tweaked it. Adding the milk made the cookies very soft and moist. I highly recommend Alton Brown's cook books for anyone else who likes to experiement with recipes. He gives lots of great information about why certain ingredients are used in recipes and how they effect the end result. For example, his section on chocolate chip cookies talks about how the white to brown sugar ration effects crunchiness (more white = crispier cookies).

 Last recipe... Stephen is sick and running a fever so I made chicken soup for dinner tonight.
Dice: 3 carrots, 1/2 onion, 2 celery stalks Cook over med-high heat in soup pot with olive oil and garlic salt until onion is translucent. Push vegetables to one side and lightly brown 1 diced chicken breast seasoned with garlic and herbs (I used Sauer's Garlic Herb Salt grinder). Add 4 cups chicken broth, 2 cups water, 1 bay leaf, a generous handful each frozen green beans, corn, and chopped spinach (or whatever other vegetables you like and have around or fresh works too, frozen is just what I keep around). Bring to a boil then lower heat and simmer covered for 30-45 min or until chicken is completely cooked and broth has a good flavor. Add 1 1/2 cups left over pasta (rotini, shells, macaroni or something similar) about 5-10 minutes before serving and remove bay leaf.

Raspberry & Chocolate

We've got company coming for the next two weeks for my birthday and to see the play my husband and I are working on. I decided that as part of cleaning and getting ready my girls needed a bath. These are Agnes and Gertrude, my two guniea pigs. Gerty (the brown one) was nervous at first but soon they were both happy, clean, and smelling of raspberries.
Next it was time to get ready for Valentine's day tomorrow. We were going to cook dinner tomorrow, had our menu all planned... then the grocery prices kept adding up and we thought, why spend tons of time and money on fancy food? We decided Valentine's day should be about spending time together not money so we put back all the pricey stuff and traded them in for our favorite (unhealthy) snacks. Tomorrow's game plan: pizza, junk food, movies and a fort in our living room. And of course these homemade chocolate covered strawberries!

Just another weeknight



Took it easy today with my favorite little guy. He's looking a bit silly now getting ready for surgery next week.

Got in a baking mood and made this grapefruit cake with cream cheese frosting from Cooking with Mickey. I was a bit disappointed in the lack of grapfruit flavor in the cake but the grapefrruit segments in between the layers went nicely with the frosting.