One filling, two meats, and three happy eaters

Last week, I decided to pull out one of those giant frozen bags of fish that Aaron's dad bought a couple weeks ago. I'd been procrastinating because it was a bag of tilapia, which isn't exactly my favorite fish, and I am always reluctant to cook things I won't enjoy. In an effort to find something more appealing to do with the tilapia, I found a recipe online (Pinterest again) that I was actually excited to try. It's a Broccoli-Stuffed Sole (though, obviously, I made substitutions right off the bat).

The filling is delicious, made with chive & onion cream cheese, broccoli, stuffing, and Parmesan cheese. The sauce is more chive & onion cream cheese, with a tiny bit of white wine and milk.

When I tried to wrap the tilapia around the filling, I will admit to having difficulty. The filets, while thin, were not long enough to comfortably wrap around a good spoonful of the filling.

The finished product was very good, especially with a side of yellow rice (that recipe has been passed down in my family for years, and is much more about taste than portions) and green beans. For Aaron, whose favorite fish is tilapia, this was a great meal. For me, whose favorite fish is salmon, it was tasty, but not something I'd run off and tell people about. (Then again, nothing with tilapia is that good to me.)


When I made the filling originally, I doubled it, because I needed twice as many pieces of fish. Turns out, because I had so much trouble filling the tilapia, I ended up with over half the stuffing leftover.

Wednesday night, upon realizing I had rapidly expiring chicken breast filets sitting right next to the leftover filling, I had an idea - why not try again??

So I repeated the recipe, with the same filling and more sauce, but this time with chicken instead of fish. The end result was delicious. The filling kept the chicken nice and moist, and the subtle chicken flavor complimented the onions and broccoli in the filling in a much more satisfying way than the tilapia did for me. Aaron, his uncle, and I cleaned our plates of the chicken (this time with salad and green beans). This time, I actually found myself wanting more, rather than leaving half for Aaron, like I did with the fish.

All in all, this recipe is a DEFINITE win, both for tilapia and for chicken lovers. Yay!!

I think I'll call it "Delicious Chicken" and leave it at that

Last week, I decided to get creative and try a new recipe off Pinterest. I was hoping for something that would be delicious, yet simple, while still being elegant enough to give me an excuse to pull out the candles I've got stashed away and have a nice, romantic dinner with Aaron.

What I ended up choosing was a recipe titled Dijon Chicken Linguine with Chanterelle. The first thing I should say is that both Aaron and I HATE almonds, so that part of the recipe got nixed very quickly. Also, it's next to impossible to find chanterelle mushrooms (which I'd never even heard of, just for the record) in this teensy-weensy town I live in, so we substituted a pack of sliced baby bellas, which are Aaron's favorite.

The rest of the recipe was ridiculously easy. Pan-fry chicken, salt, pepper, and garlic until the chicken is cooked. Make a white wine, dijon mustard, and cream sauce. Add mushrooms, and serve over cooked linguine. DONE!!
The hardest part for me was having the patience to let the chicken cook in the pan.

Aaron LOVED the meal. I'm not a huge mustard fan, so it was a tiny bit...dijon-y for me, but still very tasty AND!! It looked really pretty on a plate (though it probably would have looked better if I'd actually remembered the salad I'd meant to serve with it), helping me to feel like I was really having a nice dinner with my man, instead of our usual "What random thing should we cook tonight" fare.

All in all, an absolutely delicious (and incredibly) simple meal that I'll definitely be cooking again.

Happy faces all around!!!

A New Direction. (Maybe)

Well, there's no two ways about it - I'm a terrible blogger. I wish I was dedicated enough to sit down at my desk and write about my thoughts and my day and what's new in my life. But alas, that "Oomph" that I started out with a couple years ago has faded away.

I think part of the reason behind that is because, at the time when I wrote here the most, I was in what I commonly refer to as my "Stupid Period," but am starting to realize was probably my "Searching Phase." For the year before Tampa, the year in Tampa, and the first couple years after Tampa, I was really searching... Searching for the things I was passionate about, for the place that I could call home, for love, for myself. And I wrote because I needed an outlet - I needed a place to be intimate and open and even afraid, if that's what was going on.

I feel like I've answered most of those questions now. I'm not searching so much anymore. Don't get me wrong - I believe that I'll never have all the answers, and I'll always be looking for something, to some degree. But I'm in a pretty good place right now, and I don't really need the outlet anymore. I've found myself in a relationship that is so much more than I ever could have dreamed of, and I don't need to type my random thoughts and fears and emotions anymore. I get to just open my mouth and share them.

Which brings me back to the title of this entry - I think I'm going to take this blog in a new direction. Because there are still things I want to share - they're just not the things I thought they'd be.

See, I've found that I love to cook. Love it. While I will admit to sometimes saying "Oh, that is SO not happening - we're ordering pizza," most nights I actually look forward to cooking dinner after work. It's like I've discovered this completely new side of myself - this part of me that takes my love of food and blends that passion with my creative side and with my desire to take care of the man who means so much to me. And what better way to express all those things than cooking?

And cook I have. I've been buying cookbooks, scouring the internet, and spending hours hunched over the Pinterest app on my phone, making note of literally hundreds of recipes I can't wait to try.
And every time I find a recipe I love (or Aaron loves), or we go to a great (or a terrible) new restaurant, I want to tell people about it! I want to share with others this great new discovery I've made!! It's my way of taking care of everyone - because I've realized that that's what cooking is to me. Taking care of the people I care about - taking care of their most basic need - in the most enjoyable, creative, tasty way possible.

So I think I'm going to head in that direction with this blog. I'm going to start blogging about the recipes I'm trying. The restaurants I'm going to. The meals that came out great, and the ones that crashed and burned. And maybe even giving you (however many of you are actually out there reading this) a glimpse into my life at the same time.

Wish me luck!
And please, feel free to share or link to any recommended recipes that YOU happen to find/love along the way!!

~ Kim

Let's Call the Last Few Months My "Sabbatical"

So yes, it's been forever since I've written. And honestly, that drives me nuts. I've been feeling this insane need to write for a while now, but just keep putting it off.

Maybe the main reason I've been procrastinating is that I feel like I should have something significant to write about. And then I stop and realize that I do have something significant to write about. I have LOTS of significant things to write about! My life has changed so very drastically in the last three and a half months that it's hard to believe it's my life. And yet... It's all happened so smoothly (or maybe just so incredibly quickly) that I haven't even noticed just how much has happened.

Since December, I've graduated from MCC (finally!!), spent Hanukkah with my family and synagogue, moved 900 miles away, celebrated Christmas with Aaron's family, got a new job, went to visit Crystal, got Cooper back, and got a new phone.

I get up in the morning, take Cooper out, and shower. I head to Aaron's house, where I work from the comfort of the bedroom that used to belong to one of my best friends. I fix dinner for Aaron and I while he finishes working, and then we just hang out for the evening, often going for a walk and then watching movies or playing video games. Saturday is "our" day, and Sunday is church. And through it all, I keep waiting for my real life to start. I keep thinking that there's no way this is all my life, and there must be something that I have to go back to. I keep feeling like I'm dreaming, and I'm just moments from waking up. I keep waiting to be back in CT, still in school, unemployed, and single. But (but!) none of that is true! And I have to (get to?) remind myself of that daily.

And maybe that's the most significant thing to be writing about - the realization that my life, for once, is going so well that I feel like I'm living in a dream. Sure, there are rough times. There are times when I miss my family and friends. There are days when I miss teaching. There are nights when I hate my dog for having to pee at 2:30am. There are frustrating moments and even times when I'm sad. But I still love my life. So much so that I'm afraid it isn't real.

And that's a great thought.