delicious dish

I really don't enjoy cooking. It's not one of my favorite things to do. It's definitely not very fun to do when you are single and eat everything by yourself. Most recipes are for 4 servings, so I end up eating left-overs for an entire week. By the end of week, I don't want that once yummy meal again for several weeks because I am so sick of it.

With The Bro living a hop-skip-and-a-jump away, I've taken full advantage of his love of cooking. He quite good, too. I don't have that natural ability to just throw a bunch of ingredients together and make it work (in my best Tim Gunn voice). I never know what goes with what or what can be added to make something really yummy. He does posses these virtues and is kind enough to bestow their benefits upon me, the sad, hungry, single girl who comes begging for food at least 2 times a week.

This past weekend, however, I was inspired to make some yummy dishes all on my own. For the successful weekend in Cottage Girl cooking, I would like to thank...

• Pioneer Woman Cooks (truth be told, I am unable to tear myself away from her blog. I checked out her cooking site a little deeper this week and was drooling over chocolate cake and lasagna for hours. Her photos of cooking alone made me want to crank up the stove.)
  

• My constant state of busy-ness for the last 3 weeks. (I hadn't been grocery shopping. I was hungry. I was living on Donation Thursday's handouts. Soy milk in my cereal was the low point. Blechhh...

So what did I make on my big weekend of yummy goodness? I shall share with you, my friends. And I hope that it will also inspire you to try something new and challenging-cooking related or not-in the near future. "If Yan can cook, so can you!"

"A delightful pasta dinner that is from South Beach Diet, but I can't find a link."
Ingredients: pasta, fresh basil, diced canned tomatoes, Canadian bacon, white kidney beans, mushrooms, red wine vinegar, spices.
This recipe was given to me by a friend who had made it when I came to her house for dinner a couple weeks ago. Easy-peasy. Yummy.

"Croissant French Toast"
Ingredients: eggs, milk, cinnamon, vanilla, croissants, borrowed griddle from The Bro
This recipe was first enjoyed at a staff retreat in September. The cooks at that camp served us some of the most delicious, yummy food ever. This was one dish I ate way too much of and immediately wanted to enjoy it again in the future. Bonus: the croissants were a "Donation Thursday" find (aka FREE).

"Baby Blue Salad"
Ingredients: Salad, Dressing, Pecan delights
This salad will be served in heaven. It's that good, folks. You have to make all three to truly enjoy the awesomeness of it. And the Sweet and Spicy Pecans....little drops of heaven. I can eat them like chips.
We have served this for the past 2 years at our volunteer appreciation banquet at camp. We make it in LARGE quantities and let's just say the leftovers last about 1 day. The pecans are like gold and there have been yelling matches over the rights to them. Mmmmmm....

Now, I wish to high heavens that I had taken pictures of said meals. I will admit that I thought of it while I was making them. I did. But the thought alone wasn't enough to motivate me to actually get out my camera and do it.
I've been a in photographic slump lately. Nothing is inspiring. Nothing has made me want to drag out my camera. It has sat on its shelf since the wedding, lonely and neglected. I'm hoping this, too, will pass like my journaling dry times. I think I need to branch out and find something that inspires me. Something to get the creativity flowing. Something to open the flood gates of the ideas that I know are locked up inside me.

Anyone have any ideas? I need some help here.


***photo from the Fall 2 years ago. See?! I need some new photos!