[Sunday Cooking. Or, My Arteries Cried.]

She's at it again!

Sorry I'm getting all Julie and Julia on you, but actually I'm kinda not because I told you last time this was going to become a more regular thang...

This Sunday's breakfast was a Spanish Tortilla (or torta), which is pretty similar to an omelette, but often served as a dinner dish. I wasn't sure Chad could handle eggs for dinner, so I made it for breakfast instead, and modified it so that it was more potatoe-y, less vegetable-y. I may have accidentally skipped a step, resulting in a slightly *ahem* well done exterior...but it was basically still delicious, so we survived.

Dinner, like every other Chad/Milan activity, was just going to be the two of us. Simple dinner of fettuccine Alfredo and grilled asparagus with hollandaise sauce. In a panic-inducing (but ultimately happy) turn of events, Chad's kitchen was a madhouse at dinner time, with roommate Ben making his own dinner on the counter with his girlfriend, and roommate Tanner and friend Meredith beginning to cook their dinner as well. I openly admitted that I was terrified of cooking in front of other girls--my trusty kitchen assistant Chad is even more clueless in the kitchen than I am, so I'm rarely embarrassed when I don't know how to do something, like saute vegetables--but other girls?? Yikes! I was completely overwhelmed with all the people and cooking going on--as a new cooker, I typically require absolute peace and quiet in the kitchen--but eventually the kitchen calmed down, and I was left with just Tanner and Meredith (obviously Chad was nowhere in sight). My arteries cried when I poured the heavy cream into my pasta, mixed in a whole cup of cheese, and melted an entire cube of butter into four egg yolks for the hollandaise sauce... When it became clear that Tanner and Meredith's meal was somewhat doomed, we pooled resources and they tossed their breaded chicken into my pasta. I was really self conscious of the fact that I was suddenly cooking for five people (the four of us plus Chad's cousin). I've never cooked for any one other than Chad, and he's an easy audience because whatever the outcome of my cooking attempts, he'll tell me it's amazing, and I'll believe him because I want to. In the end everything turned out okay. Doubting Tanner enjoyed the suspect combination of hollandaise sauce and asparagus, and picky Chad loved that I made something creamy and artery clogging for once. Meredith, despite being four years my junior, was obviously a million times more comfortable in the kitchen, and her help with the asparagus was much appreciated (and needed).

Lessons learned:

1. Don't forget that you're boiling something, because it will boil down to nothing and leave a nasty stain on the pot. Amateur mistake.

2. If boys are going to sit back and let you cook the meals, they need to be Pavlov-ed into automatically doing the dishes.

3. Hollandaise sauce is not that hard to make, even for a novice like me.

4. Read all the directions on the recipe. So you don't miss a crucial step and burn the tortilla. Oh.

Most importantly...

5. Don't inhale vinegar steam. Seriously. WORST. EXPERIENCE. EVER.

Okay. That's all. On to the next meal...