Food and Friends

This weekend, I wanted to try out cooking with friends. It is much more fun than cooking alone. We had a blast! Three of my friends from college came over, we picked dinner and dessert recipes from pinterest, and we made a grocery list. We selected pan roasted chicken penne with sun dried tomatoes (long name) for dinner and tiramisu for dessert (a little ambitious…I was worried). 

            A little back ground information on my friends.  I was in a sorority in college.  It was one of the best decisions I ever made because not only did it give me great experiences, but it brought me the majority of my closest friends.  Part of the sorority experience is receiving a “Big” and most people will take a “Little” at some part during their experience.  I was blessed with taking two of the best Littles possible and they also became two of my best friends! (I also have a wonderful Big, but she was not there last night)  My first little, Becca, is also a twin and I became very close with her sister, Sammy. So last night’s dinner event was myself, my two littles Becca and Rachael, and Sammy!

The first step was to go to the store.  I needed a larger frying pan so we went to Walmart (after a trip to the liquor store to purchase the Amaretto for the tiramisu).  We were able to get almost everything except the mascarpone cheese (the boy who stocked the dairy department hadn’t even heard of it!)  and the lady fingers for the tiramisu, which I should have figured.  We then found the mascarpone cheese at Harris Teeter but still no lady fingers (I guess no grocery store sells these?).  At this point, if I were by myself, I would have given up, but my friend had the bright idea of making them ourselves, which we did, successfully! We had to make the dessert first because it needed to sit in the fridge for a long time.  The lady fingers were not originally part of the baking plan so they were a set back in time, but kind of fun to make.  We mixed up the batter and we had to make our own pastry bag out of a gallon sized Zip Lock bag to pipe them onto the pan (we were resourceful).  They were not the prettiest things ever but they turned out good! We soaked them in the coffee and liquor and layered them with the mascarpone cheese mixture and topped it with cocoa powder and chocolate shavings (which we shaved ourselves!) This dessert was 100% homemade!  

While the dessert was chilling in the fridge, we started the pasta dish.  This dish was delicious and so easy! All that was needed was sun-dried tomatoes (we bought the wrong thing-bruschetta topping- but it still worked!), garlic cloves, chicken, paprika, salt, half and half, mozzarella cheese, and penne.  The dessert easily took over an hour to make, the dinner dish only took about twenty minutes! And it was soo good!!  There was also a lot of Amaretto left over so we got super fancy and made the after dinner cock tail Amaretto Sours with lemon juice and a sprinkle of sugar!

We made a very delicious meal without a whole lot of trouble! So I know I am capable of making something really good, I just need to figure out how to convince my future husband to allow them to live with us so they can help me cook dinner! I’m just kidding!  But for real…We are going to make this a monthly occurrence so they are going to help my cooking skills grow and I am excited!  We always have so much fun together and who does not love food?  I know I do!  Until next time!

Burnt Hamburger Helper

Hey Guys! I’m Molly! I felt I needed a hobby so I thought I would try blogging! I recently got engaged on 01/01/2015 to the love of my life! I am so ready to be married to him, but I have a long way to go before I am ready to be a wife! That is why my blog is called “Wife In Training.”  My fiancé is currently working on his PhD in organic chemistry at West Virginia University and I just started a Histotechnology program in Charlotte, NC so we are spending at least a year apart! Which is not ideal, but as they say, “distance makes the heart grow fonder!”  In Charlotte I live with one of my best friends.  We both attended Wingate University together and graduated in May of 2014!  Besides living on campus, this is the first time either one of us have lived away from our parents! This will be an awesome, fun adventure we will share together and I am so excited for it!

The first major lesson I have learned is there are no meal swipes in the real world!...nor will your parents let you know when dinner is ready.  In college, if I was hungry, I texted all of my friends until I found one to go to the cafeteria and eat with me.  There was no meal prep, there were no trips to the grocery store, nor were there dishes to clean.  We simply pulled out our I.D. card and swiped it for our meal credit on our dining plan.  Now that I am out on my own, if I am hungry, I need to cook something to eat.  There are only so many microwaveable meals that are appetizing! Also I am pretty sure the Bible says, “man cannot live by frozen meals alone” or maybe it was “man cannot live by bread alone.” Whichever it was, both are true!  I figured I needed to start actually cooking, which is something I do not have a lot of experience at (the main reason for the title “Wife In Training”).  I have plenty of recipes pinned on Pinterest and now it is time to start making them.  I have had a few successes and most of them I owe to my crock pot! Those things are sent from Heaven! Some of the things I have attempted to make have not turned out the greatest though.  For example, for the Super Bowl on Sunday, I decided to try to make something snack-like for the game.  I search Pinterest for an idea and found these mini corndog bites.  They sounded so easy and simple.  We even had a mini muffin pan so it was perfect!  I decided to skip a step and just buy a box of Jiffy ® cornbread mix instead of mixing my own corn meal. (This may have been where I went wrong…woops!)  So I bought the box and mixed it up and I cut up the wieners into small pieces… like the instructions said.  I had sprayed the pan…like the instructions said.  I poured the batter into the cups and placed the wiener pieces in the middle and put them in the oven…like the instructions said.  They looked so good when they came out and I was excited about them! Of course they all crumbled and fell apart when I tried to take them out of the pan…#pinterestfail!

This now brings me to the title of my entry…”Burnt Hamburger Helper.” What is the one thing people tell you is so good and so easy to make when starting out cooking?...Hamburger Helper!  There is no way to mess it up!  Brown the hamburger and add the stuff in the box and follow the instructions.  Last night I decided to make the Cheesy Enchilada box.  I browned the meat and got it to the point of letting it simmer for 20 minutes.  At this time, I decided to read a friends’ blog post about getting engaged and I got so lost in her post that it was not until I started smelling a burning smell that I remembered I had food on the burner.  I burnt Hamburger Helper! Who the heck cannot make Hamburger Helper? I now realize it was because I did not stir it periodically and it burnt and stuck to the bottom of the pan…but still, I thought this dinner was fool proof.  The first lesson I have learned in the adventures of cooking for myself: DO NOT GET DISTRACTED AND FORGET ABOUT THE FOOD! 

(The bottom of that pot was a shiny silver)

I try to think of myself as a positive person so I have found a bright side to this situation.  I will now get experience trying to get stubborn burnt food off the bottom of a pot. I can add that to my list of completed training towards become a wife!  I have tried letting water and baking soda sit in the pot overnight…did not work!  I have tried bringing water and baking soda to a boil in the pot three different times…did not work! I think my next attempt will be soaking it in vinegar! Fingers crossed that works!  If not, I may need to say a few kind words in remembrance of the pot and just throw it away! This would not be ideal because our cookware is somewhat limited.

This blog is mainly for myself to document my adventures of living somewhat on my own and preparing for the world of marriage!  If any of you read it, I hope you get some enjoyment out of it!  I am excited to see how much I improve over the year of learning how to cook…surely I have got to improve, right?  Until next time!