Days 1 and 2: The start of the adventure!!!

Day 1: January 6, 2010

The project has begun! The EVOO has been purchased, and there is salt all over the kitchen floor already! Tonight's meal was, in a simple term, DELICIOUS!! "Carbonara Deep-Dish Pasta Crusted Pan Pizza." Oh man! What a brilliant mixture of pizza and pasta and ricotta cheese and EVOO and just...MMMMM! Yum! It takes an artist to be able to brown the carbonara (AKA-BACON!!!!) and pile the linguine into a frying pan just perfectly so it is shaped like a pizza. As soon as that is done baking for a few minutes, you slather it with a brilliant concoction of ricotta cheese, parmigiano reggiano, and parsley!!! Finally, add some mozzarella cheese, and bake until golden brown! The smell of garlic in the air and the dirty pans covering the kitchen is nothing short of a little piece of Heaven! Sitting down to eat, we cut the "Pizza" and DIG IN! Oh the bliss! The bacon and cheese and noodles explode in your mouth like fireworks on the fourth of July! 3 and 1/2 stars for sure Rachael!! (Out of 4)

I've already begun learning something with this project. Cooking can be fun!! I never liked it before. Yes of course I enjoyed eating the food, (WHO DOESN'T?!) But I never was a fan of being the one to actually prepare it! But being in the kitchen with a Mom who knows what she's doing can actually be a pretty fun time! I guarantee it will begin to get even better! Either that, or it'll just turn into hell in the kitchen and we won't be able to stand each other! Either way, we'll both improve our cooking, and get to eat some fantastic meals! :)



Day 2: January 7, 2010

Tonight's meal, "Sesame-Battered Fish Tacos with Seared Cabbage and Avocado." Yummy. The whole preperation of the meal is really the exciting part! I mean, you have to go buy a can of MEXICAN BEER!!! WOOO!! The master chef (Mama Thacker!) went to Macys at 5:30 AM to buy it, (Probably to make sure she wouldn't run into the bishop or something, I don't know!) and she came back empty handed. "Well, the state liquor law says you can't purchase alchohol before 7:00 AM," was her story. Dang it! I guess we'll have to go back during daylight hours when someone might see us! So that we did! Except this time the Father of the house was sent out on the journey, and he returned triumphant!! I won't lie, popping open a can of beer in the kitchen with you're mom watching is not exactly my idea of a good time! So you mix the beer with some flour, sesame seeds, and other spices, to make a batter. Then you take some fresh halibut, and dip the little guys in there and spin them around and then pull them back out! Then you toss them into a searing hot pan of oil, (AKA-the hot tub) and cook them until golden brown. This whole process went by the title, "Putting the swimsuit on the fishies before they go for a swim!" According to Master Chef. (She gets crazy when there's beer!) In the mean time, you sear up the cabbage and onions in some oil, and blend the avocado and other spices into a paste! Oh delicious! After everything is finished, you cram it all into a tortilla and top it with lime juice! Very, very good! Master Chef did say she felt a little intoxicated after the meal, because her mouth enjoyed it so much. But no worries folks! The beer cooks out! The Thacker's are not drinkers! We gave this one 3 stars!

Cooking tonight was fun! Sitting down with my parents and saying "Bon appetite!" (Ok, that's Julia Child, but still!) And then just digging into some delicioius grub that I helped make was awesome! Dad wouln't try the avocado paste, and he just kept saying, "You could eat this fish alone with tarter sauce!" I almost just took his tortilla away and gave him a bottle of tarter sauce! But he ate it, and I think he was ok with it! Good for him! We're all trying new foods and it's just a party!