Our Hobbies

"A hobby is an activity or interest that is undertaken for pleasure or relaxation, typically done during one's leisure time." -Wikipedia

I grew up with a family of hobbyists - bee keeping, make-your-own (insert something here), crafting, etc.

Isaiah is a hobbyist - pottery, fly-tying, fly-fishing, rebuilding (insert something here).

I used to think that I didn't have a hobby. But if I'm honest with myself, it was what I would call "joining organized groups who are saving the world" (read: volunteering and other general do-good-ing). But I've mostly retired from all of that and now am incredibly selfish and do things for me. I'm sure one day I'll go back to trying to save the world, but for now I'm really enjoying the freedom of figuring out what skills I have, what I enjoy doing, and really...just learning new things.

The picture below features three of my current hobbies - 2 puppies and a baby. I took this the other night while I was cooking dinner. The dogs were patiently waiting for me to drop food, while Anderson was having a time out for biting dad.

The "music" I listen to while I'm cooking dinner is laughter from the living room - it's Isaiah and Anderson's play time. I love that sound. But this night, Anderson was just in a mood and had to have a timeout. I couldn't help but snap a picture.

Anyway, obviously, one of my newer hobbies is cooking and learning the many lessons that come from all of the mistakes I'm making. So, here they are from last week...

First up is: Panko-breaded Chicken Tenders, baked oven fries, and fruit salad.

I hate raw chicken, don't you? But I took that chicken from raw to tasty breaded chicken fingers:

Battering the raw chicken is messy, but kind of fun. I did a version of this for coconut chicken fingers on the stove - I much prefer the baking on a cooling rack method.

Here's the before/after of the panko bread crumbs and my batter station:

Next up were the oven baked fries. These were the best potatoes I've ever made in the oven! I followed the recipe exactly. Isaiah came in the kitchen at one point while they were in the oven and this was our conversation:

Him: "Why did you use so much oil for those potatoes?"

Me: "Why do you think?"

Him: "Because the recipe said to."

Me: "Yup."

Him: (shakes his head)

But in the end, my need to follow directions paid off. They were crisp on the outside and perfect on the inside. So THERE! Anyway, here is the picture of them right before they went in the oven. You can't really see all of the oil, but it was there - two tablespoons to coat the baking sheet, plus a tablespoon to coat the wedges before they leave the prep bowl.

You'll want to make extra if you make them. They were that good.

Last up is the fruit salad...I really try not to complain about the weather, because I don't like extremes. And it never fails. As soon as I start wishing for warmer weather - BAM! - it's 103 degrees and I'm wishing for cooler weather. Nevertheless, last week I decided to make an offering to the Sun Gods:

And here was the finished meal! I drizzled honey-dijon mustard over my chicken fingers and - get this - the recipe didn't even say to do it! I know, I know, I'm living on the edge over here.

The next night was Teriyaki Salmon and spicy stir-fried snap peas.

Check out all of that garlic. Yum.

I need to remember not to buy salmon too early. We had kind of a strange week, where my schedule didn't work out as planned. I knew my salmon was just sitting in the fridge, needing to be used, and worried it was going to go bad. I might start buying my meats throughout the week...maybe a stopover grocery trip on Wednesdays.

Also, did you know that Teriyaki means "sugar" in Japanese? Alright, I didn't Google that, but I had no idea Teriyaki Sauce was mostly sugar with a few other goodies, including cornstarch which is fun in a science-experiment sort of way:

These Spicy Stir-Fried Snap Peas are going in regular rotation with the Brussels Sprouts I love. They were really easy and a perfect side to the salmon:

Next "Ah-ha" moment: I need to learn how to cut things on the diagonal. I improved on the peas by the end, but how people cut green onions in those really cool, decorative ways is a mystery to me. I tried, but they ended up looking like I gave them to the dogs first and then put them on the cutting board.

The finished product (with rice blurred out in the background):

And now we are to my Chicken and Dumplings Experiment! I decided to test out the recipe from the Joy of Cooking, so I don't have a link - sorry. But if you don't have this cookbook, I highly recommend it. And if you do, it's on page 432.

I pumped myself up quite a bit to take on this recipe. I felt like it was advanced. So I copied what I see on food blogs and cooking shows and prepped all of the ingredients in advance. It came in pretty handy:

Then I cut the chicken breasts in half. The recipe called for chicken parts, but seeing as how I don't like bone-in chicken or dark meat, I went with chicken breasts. In the end, it was a bad idea (see...I should always follow the recipes, at least the first time...) because some of the bigger pieces got dry. Here you can see the dish go from raw chicken, to raw chicken floating in a lake of butter, to the pot of goodness, to the finished plate:

You might be interested to know that, to me, dumplings are not biscuit-like things as you see above. I wanted pasta-like dumplings, but couldn't find a recipe. So next time I would do that. The dumplings here didn't really add that much to the dish. It would've been better with rice or pasta. Which makes sense, since I was making this dish to satisfy my craving for chicken-pot-pie, which I didn't make because according to Isaiah, he "doesn't like anything in a pie crust, including pie." I've seen him eat pie before, but I decided to nix the chicken pot pie idea anyway ...that was a pretty bold statement.

Anderson was a little helper while I made dinner:

I took a picture of his plate and fork in the sink because it was one of those moments where I stopped and thought to myself, "I just can't believe I have a kid." B.A. (before Anderson), I was sure kids were messy, all of their stuff would overtake the house, and in general everything would be a lot of work. Guess what? I was right. Guess what? Turns out all of that is okay...especially when it's your kid. :-)

Alright, the last meal of the week was REALLY easy. I cheated and bought some pre-made marinade from Fred's, grilled the steak, made a quick salad, and roasted cauliflower.

The cauliflower was really, really good. It will also go into regular rotation, since sometimes you just need something other than a green vegetable to mix it up. I roasted it on parchment paper, which is nice for cleanup.

I know the salad isn't anything impressive, but I just love the look of red-leaf lettuce. We used to buy the bag lettuce all the time, until one day I started buying green- and red- leaf lettuce. Now I can't go back. A tiny bit more work, but it's cheaper and much, much better tasting.

Alright, now it's Monday and I'm back at it!

• Monday - Grilled Chicken, Brussels Sprouts Ragout, and quinoa
• Tuesday - Green Chile Chili (Cooking Light, Jan/Feb '11 issue, page 181)
• Wednesday - Leftovers
• Thursday - Shrimp and Sausage Purloo - Isaiah's night to cook!
• Friday - Leftovers
• Saturday - Cherry Tomato Chicken with glazed carrots and nutty rice (Cooking Light, same issue, pages 136, 160, and 82 in that order)

Have a happy week!