The Domestic Disaster

Yes green beans and almonds go very yummily together. The only thing different I have done is used olive oil instead of butter. And I would recommend Walmart for a cheap vegetable steamer. No use risking personal safety trying to use two pots/pans that don't exactly go together. I'm not so brave!

So here is a funny story for you. I was in Virginia the past few days visiting Matt. Ashley had the unfortunate opportunity to see his apartment yesterday afternoon as it was in a state of domestic disaster. About a month's worth of laundry was piled all over the floor in the hallway, boxes were strewn about, the vacuum was sitting out in the middle of the room with heaps of pillows on the furniture, papers and lots of random things covering the table, and just about everything from under the bathroom sink sitting on top of the counter, all waiting for a good scrub down. After Ashley left Matt and I looked around and then at each other and went to work. I finished cleaning the bathroom and Matt finished the laundry. Piles were organized and put away, garbage was taken out and the whole place was vacuumed, disinfected, and clorox wiped. The place was looking and smelling clean and fresh. Home sweet home.

Then we started cooking. Important lesson learned: Just because the recipe looks easy on TV doesn't mean it is that easy in real life. Case study: Lasgana Rollups. Part two of this domestic disaster. I saw this recipe on Everyday Italian with good ol Giada. I printed out the recipe months ago in Wichita and sluffed off the "difficulty level: intermediate" because hey, it looked pretty simple on TV. Matt and I started cooking at 7pm. The cook time said 50 minutes. Well, one fight, one 2nd degree burn, 4 burnt pieces of garlic bread, and 2 hours later, Matt and I sat down, quite exhausted, to eat a delicious meal. Yes, it was quite good (except for the burnt bread), but definitely not worth the experience it was to make them. So preceed with caution when a recipe is rated at "intermediate." It may be more than you want to get yourself into!

The sequel to this domestic disaster is that we somehow managed to use almost every cooking utensil in the kitchen to make this meal, leaving the small kitchen the disaster you can imagine that it was. And this after all our cleaning from before!! After relaxing for a while and watching the Olympics, we tackled the kitchen, started the dishwasher, and lit some candles. The place looked and smelled fresh and clean again, and thus assured the happy ending to this domestic disaster story.

The End! :)