Domestic Happenings

First, a new picture of the pool and the new ugly, but imminently useful, chaise lounge. I have enjoyed both very much this weekend.

I have also purchased a "floor buddy", which looks a bit like a cloth hot pad. Mine is in the shape of a turtle and has a flip-flop-like thong top to it. The bottom is terry cloth. It's designed to help you wipe up water or spills on the floor using your foot. Very handy... Some of you might find one in your Xmas package...

By the way, whatever made wood floors so popular... Ours are very pretty, but the bottom of my white socks makes me wince. No more on that...

I bought Cooking Light's "5 ingredient 15 minute" cookbook recently and have had very good luck with that. In England, the stores were great with packaging main dishes already seasoned that just needed to be popped in the oven. I don't think I cooked a "normal" meal the whole two years we were there.

Alas, those days are gone. But this cookbook helps greatly with the gap. Not only does it have recipes for main dishes, but it also suggests side dishes, and sometimes a bread or dessert. Chris asked "why all the cooking?", and I told him it was easy. Everything's right there for me. I don't have to figure out what put with what.

Now, the book does mislead a bit... Some of the recipes definitely have more than 5 ingredients. And I can't really do any of them in 15 minutes, but I can do most in less than 30. Some dishes have been better than others, but none have been bad.

Tonight, I put diced chicken and salsa in a skillet and heated that up, while boiling wagon wheel pasta. When the pasta was ready, I put the chicken/salsa mixture over the wagon wheels and then topped it with Monterey Jack cheese. Chris went back for seconds.

I opened up a pita bread and put it in the oven to crisp it (never would have thought of that on my own). Dessert was blueberries and strawberries topped with a mixture of vanilla yogurt and honey. Chris wasn't too fond of the yogurt mixture, but I thought it was pretty good.



I also made a balsamic-and-honey sauce for chicken with a broccoli-couscous mixture. Another dish was similar to the wagon wheel pasta, where I used elbow macaroni, ground turkey, diced tomatoes, corn, and taco seasoning. Another winner.

And since we live so close to several take-out restaurants and the Safeway which is open 24 hours, it's virtually risk-free cooking. If dinner doesn't work out, help is just across the street...

I'll close with another shot of the pool. I did have one of me on the chaise lounge, but there was just too much large white leg. Not a good picture to go along with a posting largely about food....

Next posting - we get even more domestic and hang curtains...