Unintentional Hiatus

This is unprecedented.

I haven’t cooked a real meal in my own kitchen (or anyone else’s) in…let’s see…eight days. I don’t think that has ever happened before.

The last thing I made was The Angry Chef’s Garlicky Lemon Pepper Chicken which I found on Pinterest, of course. I guess I’m doing what everyone else on Pinterest is doing – actually trying to use those recipes that I pin. We’ve already had a few really good ones and this chicken was another hit. The Fab Hub picked it one night when I said, “Pleeeeeaaaaaase don’t make me start a game of ‘What Do You Want to Do About Dinner?’ tonight. Open my Pinterest, go to the Recipes to Try board and pick something. He picked; I cooked; everyone was happy.  Opening the pin link led me to a posting on The Hungry Mouse from 2008. The chicken worked precisely as the recipe claimed and looked pretty much exactly like her photos. There is nothing better than chicken that is cooked in lemon and garlic…except maybe this chicken because it’s cooked in lemon and garlic, garlic, and even more garlic. Three kinds. For real.

But then I gave up. It wasn’t intentional. The week just got away from me…

The night after the chicken must have been an unremarkable meal since none of us can remember what it was. The next few nights were a night out for me and the Fab Hub (yup, a real date…even though we never actually dated), a takeout night while working on a major deadline with the BFF. Sometimes you just want pizza and that night, the place down the road delivered – literally and figuratively. Best pizza ever.

Sunday was our lucky day because the Super Sister had more roast beef than she knew what to do with. Do I want an awesome home-cooked meal on a night when I’m in the middle of multiple major deadlines? Yes, I do. We all loved it…and so we ate it again the next night.

By this point in the week, all three of us were coming down with a lousy head cold and once again just kind of made do with leftovers from the refrigerator. But the next night? Super Sister delivers again – this time with homemade baked ziti and meatballs brought right to the front door. Baked ziti is not really the kind of thing you make in small quantities and since there is that whole multiple deadlines this week thing…plus the head cold thing…I jumped at another hot meal delivery. This was good ziti, friends – worked just the way our Grandmother used to make it. Clearly, Sister got the ziti genes.

And tonight we finished off the last of the leftovers.

So I haven’t been in my own kitchen to cook a meal in over a week. It’s kind of sad, really. Cooking is something I love to do. It’s relaxing and fun. But sometimes Life thing gets in the way of stuff and you just have to plow through and make do with leftovers.

I’m over it.

The deadline week has now passed…thank goodness. This weekend, maybe I’ll finally get to unpack my new cookware set and take it out for a spin. It’s really cold here this week. Fab Hub told me this evening that we just finished the last frozen portion of chicken noodle soup from our latest Soup of the Week efforts so it’s time for soup again! We actually have no formal obligations this weekend and I think we are all looking forward to a warm and quiet weekend at home.

Sounds like a Pajama Day to me!