**Food Friday** Home Cooking

I don't get out much due to the twenty-four hour nature of my job. With Husband only getting one day off, it has to be something I reeaaalllly want to do to go by myself. When Taste of Home Cooking School showed up on our local casino's web site (which I have to check to see which events are going on for work, I promise), I told myself that it would be the perfect way to spend a little quality time with myself. Turned out that was very true and I was accompanied by about five hundred or so people over the age of sixty as well. Apparently, I am an old soul.

I ended up arriving about half hour before the show actually started because I wanted to get my first run on my new 10k training program in. The only bad part about that was I didn't have a chance to eat anything before going to the show. I also had to use the bathroom something fierce but didn't manage to do that until halfway through the show which I'm pretty sure caused some permanent damage. Never again. Because I did show up late, I didn't really get to check out the vendors except for one but from what I could see I didn't really miss much (tried to get the Mary Kay vendor to talk to me but she was working on something and wasn't having it, oh well).

It's no secret that I heart free stuff. The goody bag wasn't too bad, there was just a said lack of snacks (cooking shows and airlines: what do they have against snacks?!). These were my fave items:

 

The food and wine pairing wheel. Now this I might actually use. I do not pretend to have any clue that certain wines taste good with certain things. If I like it, I drink it, whenever and with whatever. Not sure how accurate this is, but if I only invite people over who are also clueless, I shouldn't have a problem.

 

This just made me laugh (as did the two little old ladies at my table who I swear reminded me of these two:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0169499/

I'm not sure if I'm going to be extolling the glories of pork from now on (or ever) but it put a smile on my face.

The setup of the cooking show was really great. They had one camera set up directly over what the presenter was making. There were also several giveaways during the show and at the end they gave away everything that was made. Since I did not win any of it, I will be featuring a few of the recipes I thought looked the best over the next couple of weeks.

All in all, I think I would do it again. While I rather enjoyed being by myself (I enjoyed chatting with ladies in my area), I think it would be just as fun with a few girlfriends as well. Learned some new things, got a few (useful) free items and got out of the house on a rainy evening. Definitely a success.

 Have you ever been to Taste of Home Cooking School or other cooking show? Would you do it again?

Second Time Around

Who's ready for a flashback? This week is crazy, with a change to my hours, the Taste of Home Cooking show is in town and I'm starting a new 10k training program. Since I have quite a few new Facebook followers (thanks to SITS Girls!), I thought I'd highlight some of the posts that got me to where I am today.

Ode to Crockpots

Keeping Up with the Joneses

And the one that started it all...

Domesticity

I appreciate everyone who takes time out of their busy (and probably more domestic) lives to read my blog and hope to have some new food posts very soon. That is, as soon as dinner stops coming from a box.

Melodie says "Thanks for stopping by. Wanna snuggle?"

**Food Friday!!** Soup-er!

I hate being asked what's for dinner. Many hours may be spent menu planning, making sure each meal is unique and tasty, time taken to write it on the board on the refrigerator and still the first words out of Husband's mouth when he comes home, "what're we having for dinner?" WHATEVER APPEARS WHEN I STICK MY @#&%* FOOT IN YOUR BUTT!

*deep breath* Since most days, I don't know if I'm going to receive a call from the Hotel saying that the cookies caught the oven on fire and caused a short in the circuits, so now the elevator is stuck (oh man, why did I put that out into the cosmos), I try to keep my recipes pretty much attention free. This means we eat a lot of soup.

To me, soup can be the perfect independent food, especially if you're essentially dumping everything into a pot, giving it a stir, bringing it to a boil, giving it another stir, turning down the heat and letting it simmer. We also have soup on those days when I have no clue when Husband is coming home, so having a meal that gets better the longer it cooks works out beautifully. This Fast Refried Bean Soup from Taste of Home totally fits the bill.

In the beginning, there was homemade chicken stock. In the ten minutes, I can get it from the store.

Every trip to the grocery store includes three items: corn, black beans and pop. I hate corn, don't drink pop and put black beans in everything (usually to mask the fact that there is corn, which is the only vegetable Husband will eat).

I heart canned refried beans. Since I have to stay away from red meat, I'm very conscientious about making sure I have enough protein in my diet, especially when I'm working out (another reason for the multitude of black beans). Refried beans are a nice change of pace and are perfect spread on a tortilla and covered with cheddar cheese. They also remind me of canned cranberry sauce...

This recipe made a ton, perfect for FFY (Fend For Yourself) days.

There aren't really any classic snack foods in our home. My way of thinking is if it's not in the house, I can't eat it. I do know how to satisfy the occasional snack attack, and tortilla chips fresh from the oven are tasty treats. Preheat oven to 400 degrees, cut tortillas into triangles (or strips, either is easy when you have you're handy dandy pizza cutter), sprinkle with salt and pop in the oven for ten minutes. At five minutes, flip the triangles over to toast the other side. Presto chango! tortilla chips. **note: corn tortillas may take a little longer. I did mine the same amount of time I made Husband's flour ones and they weren't quite as crunchy.

In the end, this meal took about twenty minutes to complete, although it cooked for an hour or two, which I think allowed the refried beans to thicken it up a bit. Was just missing a heaping dollop of sour cream. Must remember to put on grocery list.

What is your favorite no fuss recipe??