4 down, 101 to go!

Things I learned this week:

1. Cooking is easier than I thought it would be. When I follow the recipe, the food actually tastes good! (Part of the reason is that my mom the awesome cook helped me pick out the recipe book. She set me up for success. :)

2. Shane is super fun to cook for because he thinks everything I cook tastes good.

3. Three recipes is no way to keep busy for a whole weekend. It took way less time than I thought to cook, so this weekend I'm going to try... 8 recipes! Also, this weekend Shane will be off work so we will be able to eat more than last weekend, when I went out to lunch with friends both days and he ate at work.

When I was looking through the book trying to pick recipes for this weekend, I was having a hard time finding things that matched and would make coherent meals. I think I got this from my mom. I can't stand to eat foods that don't match. Or meals that don't have more than one color of food (except when I consider mac'n'cheese a meal, that's all one color). One of the things I want to learn during the Abby/Betty project is how to plan entire meals with things that go together, plan a week's worth of groceries that will make multiple meals, etc. So this week to get started with that I am going to make two of the meals that are included in the cookbook: Casual Lasagna Dinner and Weekend Brunch. I am also going to make some guacamole because Shane has to take some to work for a birthday party.

So, here are my 8 recipes:

1. Make-Ahead Lasagna- Apparently I need a dutch oven for this. Does anybody know what a Dutch oven is, besides someone farting and putting the covers over your head? Can't I just use a normal pot?

2. Italian romaine salad

3. Garlic bread

4. Tiramisu!

5. Ham and cheddar strata- Does anybody know what to do when it says to use cooked smoked ham? Can you buy that? Is it something obvious like just buying lunch meat? It's for this egg casserole thingy.

6. Mixed fresh fruit salad with honey poppy seed dressing

7. Blueberry muffins

8. Guacamole

I am looking forward to a lot of cooking!