Love for Cooking

Just so everyone in the world knows, never in my life did I ever think that I would title a blog post “Love for Cooking”, or honestly even say that phrase without the words “I really just don’t have any” in front of it. But ladies and gentlemen, you are looking at a woman who has found a love for something that she used to despise – and that something is cooking.

Hi, I’m Liz. I live by myself. I have really awesome friends with whom I like to go out and eat food. Translation? I never cook. EVER. I mean, my “cooking” (and I do use the word lightly) usually consists of Lean Cuisine + microwave. Or maybe spaghetti + boiling water. And every once in awhile tortilla + cheese + microwave. But when it comes down to it, I think cooking for just myself is downright depressing. Where am I going to find ONE serving of fajita meat? Or ONE roll? Or ONE serving of anything that doesn’t make me feel super lame?

I’ll tell you where – the grocery store I’m going to start with my friend Anne Marie. Want to know what it’s called?

All By MyShelf.

(At this time, you may pause to laugh uproariously.)

However, until we get that store up and running, it looks like I have an alternative. Because for the first time in my life, I cooked something ALL BY MYSELF and I loved every minute of it. Here’s the story.

Let me tell you about my dear friend, Emily – she is wonderfully fantastic and talented and beautiful. She goes to Baylor and came down this week to perform with me in saxophone studio class and celebrate Thanksgiving with food and movies. (That’s really all we did. All week. Food. Movies. Food and movies together. Movies with food. The end.) Really the only mistake we made with the whole food thing was going to the grocery store the day before Thanksgiving. (Note to everyone in the Hancock Center HEB on Wednesday, November 24, 2010: I apologize if I was rude to you. Or laughed at you. But you were probably pretty funny.) It was slightly catastrophic, but hilarious. We called in the big guns for this particular trip – our dear friend Marshall. (I’m not actually sure if that was an efficient shopping decision, but it certainly was a wonderfully enjoyable one.) I have never said “Excuse me” so many times in one shopping trip. I have never had to actually stop breathing because someone walked by me who was so smelly that I almost choked. I also have never seen so much milk on one floor:

This was really the end of it, but you can see how sizable the mess was.

And finally, I have never been so perplexed by children. There were these two kids, walking around HEB with a MILLION other people there, clearly not knowing what they were doing, each with their own cart. THEIR OWN CART, for pete’s sake. It was hilarious. They were lost and in the way and are now probably scarred for life. (But that’s most likely because I took a picture of them, like a total creepo.)

I was trying to be sneaky.

I’m sure Mom and Dad were trying to teach them responsibility (or something equally LAME) by giving them a few things on a list to get on their own, but really? The day before Thanksgiving?? Or maybe M&D were trying to teach them to NEVER GO TO HEB THE DAY BEFORE THANKSGIVING. I mean, it worked for me. We did survive the trip and made it home in one piece. (Er, 3 pieces – that would be weird if we were some Emily/Marshall/Liz hybrid.)

On Thanksgiving, I woke up strange kitchen-like sounds. I came out and asked Emily what she was doing, and she said, “Oh I just put the pie in the oven.” Yes, everyone, she had MADE A PUMPKIN PIE (crust and everything) before I even opened my eyes. It was amazing. Then came the most amazing part – my adventure into solo cooking. This is largely due to my friend and former roommate, Maggie. Maggie supplied me with the fantastic recipe for the food item that I cooked ALL BY MYSELF. I would like to introduce you to my dear friend, Stuffing.

Isn't he just SO CUTE???

(Before you ask, NO it was not stuffed in anything. However, I will NOT call it “dressing” because it is not on a salad. Deal with it.)

I put the stuffing in the oven, headed towards my room, whirled around and said:
“EMILY!”
“What, Liz?” said Emily, nonplussed.
“I actually like cooking!!!!!!!!” screamed Liz.

I know you’re thinking, “Yeah Liz, real cool – we all cook. It’s not that big of a deal. You’re nothing special.” Ah, but that’s where you’re wrong. This is a HUGE deal – and I can’t wait to cook more. I am so pumped. And you think I’m excited? You should have heard my parents when I called them IMMEDIATELY after I yelled at Emily. They have been waiting so long for this. So, Mom and Dad, this is for you:

I'm still drooling.

RECIPES
Stuffing: Maggie Miller
Pumpkin pie: Emily’s dad
Mashed potatoes: Paula Dean
Green bean casserole: the can of French’s Onions
Rotisserie chicken: courtesy of the Hancock Center HEB

The best part? We TOTALLY didn’t need the chicken. We both left most of what we took on our plates because the rest of our meal was so AWESOME. Now this may not seem like a gourmet meal to you, but it was to me. We were total pros about it, too. The meal was ready at 1:30 PM. Partially due to this sassy maneuver.

Yeah, that's 3 things in 1 oven. We're kind of a big deal.

I was so proud. And so thankful for Emily – I could not have achieved such a feat without her. Plus, I still have one serving of everything left in my fridge. Dinner tomorrow night? I do believe so.

What a glorious week. I’ll leave you with this, in true Thanksgiving fashion.

THINGS I’M CRAZY THANKFUL FOR
My wonderful family
My seriously awesome friends
The fact that I like cooking now
6-day weekends
Clouds
Harry Potter (in every form)
Mimosas
The fact that if you buy 6 bottles of wine at HEB you get 10% off
Nebraska football
The ability to love with my whole heart
The arrival of cool weather in Austin, TX
AND YOU!

Blurry, but cute.

Love for Bomomo

Uhhhhmmmmm….love for what?

No, I didn’t stutter. (But wouldn’t it be funny if I did? In a blog post title? Talk about not proofreading.)

Bomomo. <—- Click that.

Maybe I’ll start a series – Time-Wasting Wednesdays. I absolutely love this website – and I have made many a beautiful creation on it. Here are a couple of gems:

title: fireworks.

This one I just did right now:

title: inspired by peppermint white chocolate mocha.

Go make one. And then send it to me – liz.m.love@gmail.com. Make sure it has a title, though.

Enjoy your Wednesday Time-Waster.

Think Outside the Beatbox

Sooooooooooo, remember that time I said I would post every day and then went 4 days without posting? Yeah, sorry about that. And to all both of you reading this that were SO heartbroken when I disappeared for the better part of a week, I apologize profusely. I’m back. For now. No promises made.

Last week, there was a group of saxophonists from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland here in Austin. They are doing an exchange with UT, and the Bel Cuore Quartet is going to Finland in March. (I have been concocting a plan to weasel my way into going. Become really, really famous and get invited as a solo artist? Become a contortionist so I can fit in a suitcase? Give one of the members of the BCQ an awfully contagious disease? Stay tuned.) The Finlandians (yeah, that’s right) played an incredible concert and they were so much fun to hang out with. I love Europeans.

The alto player in the group showed us videos of his brother – Felix Zenger – who is a really well-known beatboxer in Finland. You absolutely have to check this out – it’s fantastic. (It’s also a really well-done video, which is appreciated.)

Will I post tomorrow? No one knows.

The Sun’ll Come Out…Oh Wait, It’s Out.

First of all – “sun’ll”? I mean, does that even work? I guess it worked for Annie.

I’ve decided this is how the blog is going to from now on:

1. Mega for-realz gigantor posts about every 2 weeks (like Love for Last Week or Love for Adulthood)

2. Daily posts that are much shorter, but still just as exhilarating (like Love for 3-year-old Conductors or Marcel=Love)

Now, #2 is going to be a challenge. We all know I spend entirely too much time on the internet (shut up), but posting Lovely Thoughts everyday is going to SEVERELY cut into my facebook stalking time. And that is valuable time, people. (Are you a fellow stalker? Because I could spend hours clicking on people in Mutual Friends. Sometimes I make it into a game – I click on Person A in my friends. Then I click on Person B in my mutual friends with Person A. Then I click on Person C in Person B’s and my mutual friends, and so on. I like to see how long I can go before I get to a page where I’ve already seen all 3 of the mutual friends that pop up in Person X’s profile. Ask me about more facebook stalking games. I always win.)

Ahem, sorry. Back to the task at hand. (I JUST LOVE PARENTHESES.) So today is the first short, but equally satisfying, Lovely Thoughts post.

Though I am a seriously amateur photographer, I do absolutely love to take pictures of things that are beautiful. My absolute favorite? Clouds. Usually with the sun situated is some way near them. (I just imagined posting a completely black picture – there are clouds there, I swear!) So here’s a favorite:

(Click on it to see the full size photo!)

So there you go – short and sweet. Hope you liked it! And while I was looking for this picture, I came across so many more that I want you to see – so we may have to have Sunset Sunday. Or Cloud…damnit, no day of the week starts with C. Can we pretend Tuesday starts with C? CTuesday? Maybe the C is silent. Harumph.