Together is Better

I can make mistakes. When you combine my absent-mindedness with my habitual klutzy behavior, I can only laugh at myself after some of those mistakes. I'm going to describe a time I messed up, a time my hubby messed up, and a great success we just had... all which happened in our kitchen.

HER FAIL

When I was growing up, my mother made what she likes to call "Alliteration Soup" or otherwise known as "Chicken Chile Cheese Corn Chowder." This was a great creamy soup with a Mexican flavor that I remembered loving and wanted to make it for my husband. After I bought all the ingredients and made up the batch of soup, my husband had a sip and asked me if the soup was supposed to be spicy. I replied that it isn't spicy at all, but that was before I took my first bite. And boy was I wrong, this was the SPICIEST soup I'd ever made!!! Jon then noticed that I used a can of diced jalapenos, instead of a can of diced green chilies (absent-mindedness for the win). We each ended up eating only one bowl of soup that night for dinner, accompanied by about 2 cups of milk per person to down the hot-pepper mess of a chowder I made. We ended up giving the left-overs to my spice-tolerant sister and brother-in -law. They were able to eat it just fine, I guess Jon and I are too week for that many jalapenos.

HIS FAIL

Jon was craving lasagna one night, so he took out a lasagna from the freezer that we bought from Costco. The directions were as simple as can be: preheat the oven and cook for X number of minutes. He set a timer, but we had fallen asleep for a Sunday afternoon nap and never heard the alarm go off for the food. Two hours after the lasagna had been in the oven, Jon woke up and asked me if I took out the lasagna, I hadn't. We went to check on it, and it was burnt. SO burnt. We cut it open to find that the top layer was charred enough that it was inedible, but the bottom two-thirds of each slice were good enough to eat (dry, but still salvageable). Needless to say, we now move the kitchen timer into whichever room we are in so we can hear it, even if we fall asleep.

VICTORY

Jon suggested that we make a quiche.  After buying all the ingredients at our weekly grocery shopping trip and consulting multiple recipes for the best way to make a quiche, we went ahead and prepped the egg filling and cooked the meat one afternoon. That night, we put the pie together from our prepared goods and it turned out WONDERFUL!

We put about 6 pieces of bacon, 7 links of sausage, 6 eggs, so much cheese, and some salt and pepper into a deep dish pie crust.

SOOOO GOOD!

I've made breakfast casseroles before, but this takes the cake. No way is a quiche sub par to its similar egg-based casserole. I will be adding this one to my recipe notebook for future meal ideas, for sure.

So here is my big take-away: Together is Better. I would much rather make a meal WITH Jon, than with either of us cooking alone. Of course, there are times when one of us is busy or sick, while one person has to step up and make dinner, but  I am so thankful for the time that we do have that we are able to spend in the kitchen cooking together.  These kitchen memories , with my man, are some of my favorites.