Cooking

Usually my cooking posts have pictures attached to them. Not so this week. I actually made dinner twice this week. Both Monday and Tuesday. Why, I'm not sure, but I was just in the mood to give my baby a break.

Monday I made some over baked and breaded pork with pasta. Nothing mind-boggling. I had made it before and I'm sure I'll make it again. I thought it was pretty tasty.

On Tuesday night we had Scrappy. In fact we were going to have Scrappy for the rest of the week. Scrappy's new favorite dish is Spaghetti and Meatballs. I'm not entirely sure when that started, but for a few months now thats what she's been saying. So instead of simply making and serving it, I had her help. It was more a lesson in common sense than cooking, but I had fun. The meal was relatively tasty although the spaghetti was a tad undercooked. Scrappy loved it because she helped make it.

So there it was. My adventures in cooking this week... without pictures.

Happy Mother's Day

I dont cook a lot. Rarely if ever (especially because my wife is a ridiculously good cook... have you seen her blog). Every now and then i'll wake up early and whip something up for breakfast. On Mother's Day I did just that.



It was a ridiculous amount of food for the two of us. Scrambled eggs, bacon (lots of it), tater tots, toast, and fruit salad. All while the new Gavin (Gavin is pretty special to us... we've listened to a ton, both together and separate) played in the background. All in all. I'd have to say it was a very delightful morning. A fitting way to start the day and say thanks to my beautiful wife. Happy Mothers Day.

Sunday Breakfast

With the wife having taken up most if not all of the cooking duties (not that i'm complaining, she's a much better cook) I've taken to making the occassional Sunday breakfast. I don't particularly love to cook, but there is something special about breaking open some eggs, slicing up some apples, frying some bacon and sitting down as a family to enjoy breakfast on a Sunday morning. Very few things in life are better.

Different Pork

Scrappys parent/teacher conference was 11/13 which also happened to be a Tuesday night. It also so happened to be that my love was working that night. I had remarked to her that I felt like I always made the same type of pork when I cooked for Scrappy. She then went into the cookbook and found a simple recipe she thought I'd be able to do.

I didn't get out of Scrappy's conference until after 7:00 (smart kid, she needs to focus was the gist), I then ran over and picked Scrappy up. With an 8:30 bedtime I knew starting dinner after 7:30 with her just wasn't going to happen. So I ran over and picked up a Happy Meal for her on the way home. Once I bathed her and put her to bed I started to make dinner for myself.

The recipe my love selected for me was sliced pork with apples. It definitely was a nice and simple recipe for a kitchen novice like myself. It really involved browning the pork (on both sides) in olive oil and garlic. Then slicing up the apples and cooking them in the same olive oil with just a pinch of thyme. Although it really was simple, it was a very nice comination of tastes. I thought it was one of the better meals I had made.

MMMMMMM.... Meatloaf

This weekend with very little time before she had to walk out the door her job I asked my love "Hey, what do you want me to do with the ground beef." She looked at me and says "Oh, I was gonna make a meatloaf before I left." I was flabbergasted. I thought to myself, is she gonna have enough time. I then asked and was reassured that there was plenty of time.

Before I knew it, bowls were being broken out and things were being mixed together. Then almost instantaneously, there was a meatloaf in the oven. As my love was getting ready to scurry out to the tavern she says "You have to make the sauce, I left the recipe open." What? Something for me to do... I was sure I was going to mess the whole thing up. I can't get left in charge of a masterpiece to oversee... I was scared shit.

So I grabbed the recipe then I grabbed Scrappy. She helped pour all the ingredients and then I stirred it all together. Once the Meatloaf was ready to come out of the oven I poured it over the top and popped it back in for about 10-15 minutes. As that was going I asked Scrappy what else we should have. She decided on the rice, I decided on the brussel sprouts (which Scrappy had surprisingly eaten without a fight earlier in the week). Once it was all completed dinner was on.

This is a shot of my plate with a whole heaping of meatloaf. It was absolutely delicious. So although I'm cheating a bit by posting this up, I did contribute a bit by not ruining it.

"I like the color of the Pork, it looks nice"

With the misses working late at the new gig I was on my own for dinner with the little one. I knew we had Pork in the fridge that needed to be made, so when I picked Scrappy up I asked what she wanted. "The same pork we always have... with pasta... and green beans". I was proud of the fact that she even suggested green beans. A year ago she would have fought, cried and sat at the table for hours before she ate a green bean. Now she loves them.

By the pork we always have she of course meant oven-baked breaded pork.

With time running short (because of helping with homework), I really didnt have time to do anything other than boil water for the pasta and green beans and bread the pork and drop it in the oven. Tuesday nights always feel a little rushed. While the pork baked Scrappy helped me with the dishes. We washed and dried all the dirty dishes (which was good because we were making new dirty dishes).

When everything was done cooking, I mixed in the green beans with the pasta (always easier to make Scrappy eat more vegetables if its all mixed together). I then added some Italian Seasoning on top. For the pork I sprinkled a little Mozarella Cheese on top and called it a meal. It wasn't the best thing I ever made, but it certainly wasn't the worst. As for an endorsement from Scrappy, her take on it was "I like the color of the Pork, it looks nice".

New Art... Tomorrow

This is turning into quite the busy week. Trying to wrap everything off before taking off for a few days sure is harder than it seems. With that said I did try and relax while starting to draw a picture last night. It was a pretty standard Tuesday night. I picked up Scrappy (explained to her that the fish had died... very sad... we'll miss you Brad), made dinner (sadly I didnt take a picture... it was breaded oven baked pork, with pasta and green beans), fed her, sat with her while she made a card for Brad, watched some Hannah Montana and then cleaned her up and got her ready for bed (we read "Welcome to Narnia").

After getting her down I started to work on a piece I had been planning for a while. A really cool Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow. I was tired and it was getting late, but I decided to go for it anyway. I started to put Snake Eyes together while chatting with my love who was still at work over IM. I got almost completely done with Snake Eyes and was getting ready to start up on Storm Shadow when my love says "my back really hurts"... so I wondered what I could possibly do for someone who does so much for me. So I offered up "don't worry when you get home I'll give you a massage". Now, I'm not a very good massuese but I once grabbed a book from the ELLE Book Sale titled the Art of Massage, so I quickly turned to the Back chapter and gave it a quick read. By the time I was done reading the chapter my love was home and after she ate and relaxed a bit, I was able to give her a nice little massage.

It wasn't much but I think it helped ease the stress she was feeling and helped her sleep a little easier. I like to think it helped.

I'll finish up Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow tonight and post it tomorrow.

No New Art

No new art was drawn last night. My love was home early, so she was able to make dinner. I tried to help as much as possible. I helped with the pasta and the cleanup. It was nice to be able to sit down and eat as a family. It rarely happens during the week, so it was nice.

After dinner (which was a lemon chicken pasta toss... so delicious), then giving Scrappy a bath, then getting her to bed... i really wanted to do nothing more than relax. So it became a night for us to catch up on a lot of the shows we had DVR'd. We saw this weeks Flight of the Concords which was pretty funny, then we saw the World Series of Pop Culture which was great (love this show... I swear I will try out next year). After that was over we went to the YES network to catch the Yankee game and got to see them rally to tie the game in the ninth and then win it in the tenth. After that we saw this weekends Bridezillas. Watching some of these crazy brides makes me appreciate my love a little more.

I then read a few comics (more on that later) and we then went to bed. All in all it was a nice relaxing week night. I'll try and do some drawing tomorrow night. I'd like to try and do a few pieces. Three might be ambitious, but two might be doable. Especially since one of the pieces I want to do is the animated Legion. We'll see...

Not So Super Tuesday... Green Lantern

Yesterdays installment of Tuesday night drawing had me wanting to draw other members of the Justice League or the entire new animated Legion of Superheroes (love that new show, wish they had made more episodes). I bounced the idea around of drawing the entire new Justice League as a team, but decided I wasn't ready for that. So I decided on two members of the new team. I would either draw Green Lantern or Black Canary (saving the other for next week).

Wanting to be able to get Scrappy to bed, help make dinner and actually try and watch the All-Star game (yay American League) had me thinking I'd be very pressed for time. Seeing as how men are always easier for me to draw then women, I decided to draw a simple Green Lantern piece. Scrappy had eaten dinner at her other house so I didn't have to worry about getting ready. I did have to make rice while I waited for my love to treat me with some steak (love steak, can never have enough of it).

So at about 7:30 I found myself sitting on the couch with Scrappy watching the Suite Life when I thought I could start to work on a piece. I broke out the newly sharpened pencils (thanks baby... for some reason it escapes me on how to properly sharpen a pencil) and got to work on Green Lantern. I hit a good stride when it was time for me to start the rice for dinner. Shortly after the rice I had to give Scrappy a bath and get her ready for bed. While she was in the bath I quickly finished the pencils. The pencils probably took me 20-25 minutes total. Everything flowed really well, although I had a pretty crappy day at work my evening was turning out ok.

Got Scrappy to bed and just as we were starting the story my love showed up and we were able to tuck her in together (I love when we get to do that together... it doesn't happen very often during the week, so its special when it does). As my love was starting up the steak I was able to start inking the piece. So I inked a little, sat down for dinner, ate, had some difficult conversation then sat down and finished inking.

I think the piece suffered a bit from the fragmented inking (the total inking time was probably 45 minutes). It's by no means an awful piece, I just wish it was better. I don't feel like I captured the perspective of the piece properly. The lower half seems so small while the upper half seems so large. I tried to save it a bit by adding in greys for the musculature. It could also be that I'll always lump this piece in with everything else that was going on, so I'll have a hard time looking at it objectively. Not an awful piece by any stretch of the imagination, but definitely not something that I truly love either. It was my first ever Green Lantern piece so it becomes my best Green Lantern by default. Maybe I'll try and redeem myself and draw something else this week.

Family Cookies

One of my favorite things to do (or just watch) with my Love and Scrappy is making cookies. I was never involved in cooking growing up. So the fact that we make an effort to get Scrappy involved is really important to me. She gets a little annoying (which kid doesn't) because she wants to be involved in everything, but it's still fun. It's truly one of my favorite things to do.

I remember getting the note last year when Megan was in kindergarten asking to send cookies in for the bake sale. I was all set to just go to the store and buy a box of Entenman's cookies when my love suggested we actually bake them. I had no idea she baked. No girl I was ever around had ever baked, so this was completely foreign to me. I also obviously had no baking materials so I had to go out and buy everything. Mixing bowls, cookie sheets, wax paper, flour... everything. So we decided it would be a fun family project. The day came to bake the cookies and Meg fell asleep and I sat there amazed, but it was basically my love baking the cookies (she's always such a good sport)... and they were amazing. It quickly became one of those things we did on weekends. We baked (most of the time it was a pretty solo project with very little involvement from Scrappy or myself).

My love baked everything... strawberry cookies, chocolate chip, oreos, oatmeal scotchies, sugar cookies, gingerbread men, chocolate chips with nuts, chocolate cherry pistachi pinwheels, oatmeal toffee coconut... all were ridiculously delicious (all greatly photographed here http://happiestpuppies.blogspot.com/search/label/cookies).


I think I love cookies and the process because cookies to me feel like home. I've never been around anyone who loves making cookies so much. I'm sure it's not always the easiest thing to deal with... with me being a novice and scrappy being overly eager... but my love always finds a way to make these cookies spectacular. She has no idea the joy I get from not only eating these, but over the sheer fact that we've made them a family project.

Yummy Pork

We had Scrappy on the eve of her last day of First Grade. I typically make dinner when we have her on Tuesday nights. We had pork in the fridge, so I wanted to do something different than my typical breaded and oven baked pork.

Right after lunch I started thinking about dinner (for a food lover like me, thats a regular thing). I went to allrecipes.com (which I love) and started typing up a search for Pork Chops. I found a pretty simple recipe (for me, simple is key because I'm not a very good cook) which really just required pork, Italian dressing, pepper and soy sauce. I saw that and thought hmmm, I have all of that. Then in looking over the recipe some more I saw one of the comments that said she sliced up an onion, laid it on the bottom of a glass tray and after browning the chops placed them in the oven for 35 minutes (of course pouring the sauce over them).

I also made some simple white rice and green beans. Rice and vegetables are pretty constant, so they were a bit simple to make. The trick for me is to always have something for Scrappy to do so that she doesn't get bored waiting for dinner and so that she feels she was a part of making the meal. So I had to start up the chops, get them in the over, and then wait a few minutes before starting up the rice and vegetables.

When all was said and done Scrappy and I sat down and ate. I thought the chops turned out ok. I poured some of the sauce and onions over the pork chops. Scrappy said they were a little spicy (she says everything is spicy, even her toothpaste from time to time), but she ate the whole meal. Next time I try this meal I will use less Italian dressing. I think that will help with the overall taste. For much better food check out the mmm... delicious link off to the right.

Crap Cakes... a.k.a. Adventures in Cooking

MS was going to be at work late geting her contact sheets in order for her photography class. So i eagerly ask "What would you like me to make for dinner." We were gonna have Meg, and I didnt want to stop and get fast food for her, so I wanted to actually make something. MS has had great success with the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, so I decided to hit their website and find a recipe. We decided that crab cakes would be a good idea, Scrappy loves crab, and so do we. I found a recipe that seemed simple enough... should've realized then it was gonna be a problem.

The recipe only had two steps. Simple I thought. I'll be able to handle Meg, her homework, making dinner, feeding her and then giving her a bath and still having time to read story. Yeah... not so much. As I started adding ingredients I started to realize it didnt seem wet enough. It didnt seem like everything was binding together. It all started to go downhill fast. Meg was starting to get really hungry as well, Math homework was an adventure (she just doesn't understand the values of money yet), luckily i bought extra crab, and was able to feed her that alone while i continued prepping. She loves it, And American Idol was already on, so she was good.

As I start to put everything into the frying pan, I start to get really upset. They just dont seem to be sticking together, so its like crab mush in the frying pan. I have 8 up in the pan, which actually for all the drama dont turn out so bad. The second batch starts to get much worse. Its starting to get much later, so I start to worry about getting Meg in for a bath. So I figure I could drop the second batch in the pan while I start to get her bath ready. Bad idea. I guess because the pan was already very hot, the second batch got pretty burnt. I finished giving Meg a bath, and then dove into the third batch. The third batch was a little well done, but not burnt. So, all in all, about 12 of the 20 crab cakes were fine... no more than that.

I was already in a way bad mood over not being able to mix this, make cakes or get them into the frying pan. MS always makes cooking look so effortless. So I felt the need to punish myself and eat the really burnt crab cakes ( I hate wasting food), plus I wanted MS to only see the pretty good crab cakes. My one saving grace in the whole evening was MS sitting on the couch when she got home and saying "Baby, these are good, they are very tasty"... her saying that made me happiier than she knows, I still felt crappy though because I felt like I couldnt get these crab cakes right.

The next day, my buddy who went to culinary school tells me "Dude, what were you thinking, crab cakes are a very delicate mixture... not for a novice" Oh well. Lesson learned. I promise I will attempt this again, preferably after some more practice.