Fun in the Kitchen

    Having my own kitchen has helped me to get in touch with my "inner chef." This post is not a bragging session on my new found talents, for that would be extremely exagerated. Rather it is meant to highlight a few of my successful dishes aside from my many flops. Poor Robert has been so good to stick out my cooking while I try to find my footing as a homemaker. He tries everything I make and always says he likes it. Though he doesn't know this yet, I can always tell what he likes by how much he eats. He sure is a sweet man.



Slow cooked roast beef with ginger ale, boiled red potatoes, and side salad. It took 8 hours! But well worth it. 



Left over roast beef sandwiches with mozzerella, lettuce, onion, and tomato. Not very innovative, but extremely good.



This was one of my best turn outs. I tossed cooked spagehtti in a pan with a little hot olive oil, added tomatoes and spinach then let it simmer a bit. (I may have added oregano...?) Before serving I topped with parmesan cheese.



Robert was actually the mastermind of this beautiful dish. Tacos dorados I think is what it's called. The middle of the tortillas are filled with mashed potatoes then fried in a thin layer of oil. Top with your choice of veggies, salsa, sour cream, and guacamole. They looked so pretty when he was done. He also makes delicious tacos carne a'sada.

EaSteR

Celebrating Easter with just Robert was definitely a new experience for me. It was my first holiday away from my immediate family. This was a great bonding experience for my new, however small, family. I hope to always remember this Easter. It was a modest celebration, with a few gifts and thoughtful words. Robert got a new razor and I got a water bottle. We each picked out our favorite candy and arranged it with the gifts in a makeshift basket. Robert was so cute about it. My precious 4 year old husband made me the happiest Easter Bunny that morning.

 Our Easter dinner was quite a treat for us. We had shepards pie. Even with elk meat substituted for the hamburger, it was delicious.

What a cheez! Yes, he is like this all the time =]



Our First Place, Home Sweet...Mold?

    Our first apartment together was a lovely 1 bedroom basement apartment in Cedar City (1050 N 77 W Apt B). The walls were knotty pine wood paneling and cement. The layout was kind of funny, our bedroom had a tiny closet that Rob chose to use and in the living room there was 2 large closets which is where I kept my clothes. I liked the arrangement : ).  



Our Living Room



    It was definitely a humble abode. We had no couch, no air conditioning, no cable, and no bath tub. To sit back and relax, we used camp chairs in front of the tv. It was slightly difficult when visitors came over. The only source of heat we had was a shop space heater that made the walls sweat. Despite all that, we were just happy to have a place to live and call our own. Looking back at it, it was a cute apartment.



The Bedroom



The Tiny Kitchen: the kitchen table was a Christmas gift to ourselves. It barely fit, we couldn't open the fridge door entirely.



   My favorite feature in the apartment was in the kitchen. I didn't take a picture of it and I wish I would have. The stove was a miniture stove that was half the size of the average stove. Amazingly it still had 4 ranges and a full sized oven (it could actually fit a cookie sheet if placed in sideways). However, if I wanted to use a large pot the ranges next to it were not accessible...a minor inconvenience for two people.

     This blissful apartment experience was unfortunately short lived. About 3 months into our happy living arrangments, we discovered mold on our bedroom walls. The landlords were nice to come in and clean it up, but a week or two after that we discovered more. This time it was in the kitchen, on the walls above the counters. Being such a tiny kitchen most of the counter space was taken up by bowls, toasters and the like, that covered the walls. We wouldn't had even discovered the mold if it hadn't started growing out underneath the things on the counter. Ugh we were horrified!!! We scowered the rest of the house and found mold in almost all the closest and even under the head of our bed growing an inch out of the carpet. Understandably...we had to move.





Our storage closet: As you can see most of our boxes were covered in black and green mold. Thankfully we had most things in boxes and so we just threw the boxes away. However there were a few food items that couldn't be salvaged. A 10 lb bag of wheat flour was one of those items : (