Because I am a mature, responsible adult who takes her dreams very seriously, I 100% bailed on writing last week.  Kevin and I spent the weekend at Aulani (a Disney resort on O’ahu where the lazy river takes 15 minutes to complete one go-round, and I know this because I made one of the lifeguards time me during one of my hours-long voyages) and when we came home I looked at my laptop and said “Nah.”

Instead I spent the week trying out recipes from my vegetarian slow cooker recipe book, which is my favorite cookbook because I don’t really like cooking very much.  Kevin’s the chef in our house, but he’s been so busy lately that we’ve had tater tots for dinner more evenings than I should really admit.  So I decided to take it upon myself to make us a backup of freezer foods for the future.  I didn’t take pictures because I am a bad blogger, but here’s a list of what I made:

• Savory bread pudding– This was the first recipe I made, and it was new to me.  It wasn’t a complete disaster, but I don’t think I’ll make it again.
• Fudge– This was something I found on the internet to use up the leftover evaporated milk from the savory bread pudding.  It turns out that fudge is surprisingly easy to make, even when you substitute peanut butter from a jar for half the chocolate and add water because you don’t have quite enough evaporated milk for the recipe.  Plus, it makes a ton and is delicious.  I still have a container and a half in the fridge- and we already ate one!
• Corn and cheddar loaf–  Because the only ‘loaf’ I ever eat is bread, it never occurred to me that this wouldn’t be bread, even when the recipe only called for, like, two tablespoons of flour.  This semi-disaster reminds me of the time I made sugar biscuits out of my Harry Potter cookbook and discovered that ‘biscuit’ in a British cookbook is not the same thing as an American biscuit.  (A thing I knew literar-ily but that until that point had never invaded my life)  To sum it up- it jiggles.
• Corn soup– A success!  But to be honest, I knew it would be because this is an old favorite.  But still, after the loaf and pudding it was nice to have something that actually went well.  And now we have two jars of this in the freezer.
• Poached pears–  Have you ever  been to a classy person’s holiday party and thought “This is nice food, but who eat like this, really?” That’s what these taste like.  They’re perfectly fine, but no one needs that much red wine-poached pear in their life, so we tossed them.
• Yogurt bread– Another success, but one we knew would be.  This recipe isn’t from the cookbook either- it’s from the back of a manga!  The series Kitchen Princess closes ever book with a selection of really tasty looking recipes and this is one I swiped from there.  Actually, I’ll be making more today.
• Cheddar soup– A success! And one I didn’t know would be, since it was my first time making it.  There’s even carrots and celery in it so it’s kind of healthy.  Kevin encouraged me to add more cheese to it (taking up my family’s line of ‘there can never be enough cheese’) and then, upon tasting it, informed me that it was too salty.  But I like it.
• Chili– My dad made this recipe for me when I first went veg back in 5th grade.  Kevin and I always make a double batch and say we’re going to save some, but it never actually makes it to the freezer for more than a few days, but this time three of the four jars are actually tucked away!  Best eaten with Frito Scoops, naturally.
• Broth– Kevin always tosses the loose odds and ends of whatever veggies he’s chopping into a bag in the freezer with the intent of making broth.  Mostly we forget its in there, but this time I pulled them out and we boiled them into a tasty base for the soups.
• Ricotta pancakes– After the fiasco that was the corn loaf, I had leftover ricotta.  Ricotta pancakes aren’t a whole heck of a lot different from regular pancakes, I think, but they sure sound fancy.

As you can see, despite spending hours on my feet chopping and measuring, only about half of the recipes were a success.  That’s why I’m not a food blogger- I leave that to people who actually succeed at cooking, like my friend Tanya.  I may never be able to do the things she does but they’re fun to read about.  She took lessons in Paris!

Kevin took a picture of a plate I made with some of the fudge (slightly before it was all firmed up), so you can at least see that!

Now that I have that thoroughly out of my system (I’ve told Kevin that I’m never going to cook again) I’m back at the keyboard and ready to stare at Scrivener again.

To my writer friends- how do you justify your slacking-off periods?  Or am I the only one?

P.S.  My manuscript’s at 55,003 words! Despite not looking at it for a week!