Shopping for Groceries

So since I don't live in NY like Rachel I have to depend on my chain super stores to provide me with all the ingredients I need. I have found with this supposedly easy task that this should be done with the cook book and not just with a written scribble. You always forget to write down the exact thing and think to yourself, now was that sliced or diced? creamed or whole? french cut or short? flakes or ground? These are what one thinks of on her first trip to the market.

So after getting to the market for the 2nd time now, of course I still wrote it down again thinking I was good to go, I run into another problem. Here in middle america our chain markets don't necessarily carry the ingredients needed. We here in middle america are good country folk, heck we raise our own meat. But aged meats? LOL!!! Now I do give credit to the grocery stores who had the meat, the problem is I still didn't find exactly what I needed and it took 3 trips to 3 different stores to find it. I do admit I will be calling around to our large number of local butcher shops, 2 that I know of to see if they actually carry "Pancetta" next time, but I digress. So all in all this 30 minute meal has turned into a 3 hour grocery hunt, so it better be a panty dropper. Rachel so far the only one you are turning on is my husband!

So I kept my receipts but of course now I can't find them. I believe the meal with all the trips cost up to 20$, this is why I'm only going to make one recipe a month.

Making A Conscious Decision

So after looking at all of my recipe books one day and of course deciding I didn't care if I'm ramping off of the Julie & Julia movie, I have decided to make it my goal to actually use one of my recipe books. Now this wasn't a had decision. My husband LOVES Rachael Ray! He actually refers to her as his food mistress and I think he dreams about further out of the kitchen "lickings". She's Yummo!!!

So here I am with the mistresses cookbook in hand. I have chosen her 30 minute meals book because it seemed like it would be the easiest to conquer. I plan on following one recipe a week unless I can afford to make more. I went through and tabbed all of the chapters and I'm going to let Evan, my husband pick the chapter and I will just go in order from there.

His first pick? Cheesy Pasta Presto... Mind you that I will absolutely not cook anything like soups or chili's until the weather is not in the triple digits or high doubles. Even making this dish I think is pushing it.

So we begin...