The Wife That Cooks

Ryan invited a guy from work over for dinner one night. He's Italian, and it just so happened that I was trying out a spaghetti a la bolognese recipe. I'm basically on the border of Italy, but since I need English to understand recipes, I got this one from the Pioneer Woman blog. I think she lives in Oklahoma.

At one point during dinner, he asked Ryan how he stays so thin with "a wife that cooks." A wife that cooks - he was talking about me! I thought to myself... how did I become the wife that cooks??? Well, probably because going out to eat here costs at minimum $100, and because I actually have time in the evenings now, and because I don't shop for clothes much anymore, just groceries. So yeah, I guess I'm the wife that cooks. This is new for me, so when something comes out looking particularly pretty, I take pictures. And since I'm both bewildered and a little proud of my new title, I thought I'd share the fruits of my labor.

Here's that bolognese dish. The Italian guy was honest... he said it was good, but that since his Dad was actually from Bologna, it wasn't exactly what he was used to. And the artichoke soup has been one of my favorite recipes... it's from a New Orleans cookbook my Mom sent me, and has been perfect with the fresh loaves of bread we get here.














I've tried fish a few times, and it's never been very good. I heard someone talking about how it's best when cooked as a WHOLE fish, and that you don't even have to do much for it to taste good. So, I gave it a try. The instructions were to just rub olive oil on it, maybe use some fresh herbs, and lemon slices. Just to be safe, I stuffed this thing to its gills - literally. You couldn't even see it was a fish. And guess what? I still didn't like it. Too fishy.



Remember that roast I was writing about? Here's the sequence of events. In case you guys don't think we're serious about things being expensive here, I took a picture of the price tag. $80 for a piece of meat. It was big, though. So big that it didn't fit on my cutting board. And finally, it was ready for the oven. I hate that I didn't take a picture of it coming out... it was beautiful.


I've only tried making my own pasta once. From a real Italian cookbook, too. You had to make the pasta, then roll it thin, stuff it with this spicy sausage, cheese, and herb concoction, then make a mushroom sauce to go over it. It was okay... the pasta was too thick. Ryan still liked it.






And sometimes, I make dessert. I had a couple of friends over after an 8:30 exam, and I decided to serve mimosas and cinnamon rolls. Kind of odd, I know, but they'd never had either (isn't that crazy?), and I had just gotten some brown sugar from the states... felt like using it. Here they are before they went into the oven. I never knew how much butter went into cinnamon rolls. Sufficed to say, we haven't had them since.

This strawberry tart on the other hand, is something I'll be making often. Did you know you could still make homemade whip cream without a mixer? Yep, all you need is a good 30 minutes.













This isn't really cooking, but it's funny. The brownie mixes here come with their own baking boxes. You put the box together, then you put the mix together, and voila - you have brownies. That aren't very good.














And tonight, we're having a salad that I will really miss when we move home... you can't find the lettuce in the States (it's French, but I can't remember what it's called). My neighbor introduced us to it. We have it with candied walnuts, goat cheese and a homemade vinaigrette. And finally, pesto with odd shaped pasta. The result? Ryan likes the wife that cooks. Who'd have guessed it?