ROOKY cooking..

Good friend rose has taken to teasing me about my ‘sudden’ interest in cooking. I guess the word ‘sudden’ may be a wee bit true. It has been a long long time since I was really committed to planning and executing healthy and interesting meals. The last time I was in one of these modes was when we were back on James and I was following this fabulous 1200 calorie diet plan. I had found it on CBS’s website and printed off three months worth of meal plans by the day. really very cool…but not too budget friendly. Along came mr k and Lu, a traveling hubby and dinner became just one more thing to do before bedtime rolled around. I will share this observation with you ..I think it is more expensive to eat healthy than it is to make sure that six people have breakfast, lunch and dinner. No secret I shop at Aldi and they do have prices that fit our budget but I couldn’t buy most of the items on the 1200 calorie diet there. And today the news gave statistics that the Mexican population should expect that 50% of their children will suffer from diabetes. I’m not all that familiar with a traditional Mexican diet, but I am familiar with my shopping buddies at Aldi and they are making decisions that stretch their dollars not necessarily a healthy lifestyle just like a lot of people. I mean, canned veggies at less than 50 cents a pop can go a long way. Cereal for less than three bucks can feed more people than eggs and bacon and fresh fruit.

Eh hum, coming down off my high horse now….

Today was Chinese day at our house. I mentioned the other day that I am following my Robin Miller cookbook this week and one of the ‘morphing’ items was a pork roast. Had the pork roast yesterday. With the portions that weren’t eaten at that meal I diced and shredded enough pork for wonton soup, pork fried rice and cabbage rolls.

I made my way through the morning routine in anticipation of putting Lu down for her nap and me getting my prep work done for supper. Once my princess was happily sleeping. I put on my William Sonoma apron for confidence and dug in. I really wanted to crank Phil Collins..but feared waking up the baby when I shout out.
.’I can feel it comin’ in the air tonight…..oh Lord….i’ve been waiting on this moment…for all my life…Oh LORD…’
…so I prepped in silence. The first thing to do was prepare the wonton stuffing and then stuff the wonton wrappers. Since the pork was already cooked and shredded it only took a minute to get it heated up in some sesame oil and coleslaw mix. I laid out my wonton wrappers on the counter and put a couple teaspoons of stuffing in the middle of each one. Robin’s instructions were detailed enough that ‘forming’ the wontons was a snap. I did a few and was pretty darn impressed with myself. I kept at it and made enough for my soup. Packaged them up for later and stuck them in the fridge. Next up was baking the extra wonton wrappers for a desert.

I pre heated the oven, sprayed my cookie sheets and sprinkled sugar on the wrappers. Oh yea,,,,I was feeling pretty RACHEL about then…
I was thinking how proud Barb, my old neighbor would be of me..and how I was going to take pictures to put on the blog.

Click,,,the oven finished preheating….and then…
I went from RACHEL to ROOKY in a split second. Guess what I find in the oven when I open the door????
Last nights baked potatoes!!!!!….i forgot to serve them with the pork roast…hard as rocks these damn things were…I could have saved them for weapons!!
I crack up at myself and think…man, Rose is going to have a field day with this!!!

I proceed with the rest of the instructions. Later on once the kids get home and it is time really pull it all together I prepare the pork fried rice and R assembles the deserts. Hubby is late getting home which gives me more time to get plates made.
Here is what it all looked like.
We ALL liked the wonton soup. Doug said it tasted ‘authentic’
NONE of us really liked the fried rice. I didn’t think it came close to billy lees.
Kids and I, sans Lu loved the deserts.


So, I’ll make the wonton soup again…NOT the rice.

Tomorrow is cabbage rolls. Doug had asked for them..so we’ll see how those turn out…and I downloaded songs from Jesus Christ Superstar to cook to!!!
‘whats that buzzzzzzzz ??? tell me whats-a-happenin'…….whats that buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz???’