cooking and other great feats...

well, first off, let me say...it ain't easy.  but not for reasons one might think.  it's not the foods...it's crazy stove and crazy oven that are giving me fits.  sure i have a double oven...but only one actually bakes anything.  and the other one, upon it's choosing, blows a breaker.  even though it isn't actually baking anything in the first place.  the top oven, which we will call my good oven,  is the only one i use.  however, i discovered today that it leans to the front.  my sheet cake dripped all over the front of the oven.  which brings me to the sheet cake.  oh. my.  when we moved i wasn't sure that i could get all of the ingredients for the recipes in my pioneer woman cookbook.  but hallelujah, i had all the ingredients for her sheet cake.  with every taste, every child said, "oh. my. goodness."  in a good way.  it wasn't pretty...thanks to the leaning oven of swaziland, but it was good.  very good.

everyday i try to make something new.  i figure, eventually, someone will come see me...and when they do, i want to be able to make them something yummy.  every meal i ask the family if this is something we could serve guests?  indian tacos-yes.  mediterranean chicken-no.  pancakes-yes.  spaghetti with homemade sauce-no.  it's a little game we play that gets me super defensive and usually stirs up quite a fight.  randy has tried to remain neutral, but hudson hasn't learned to keep his mouth shut.  there are some things it takes men a lifetime to learn.  or at least through their teenage years.....

anyway, i got a little side tracked.  my other cooking obstacle is the stove.  the stove that only has 2 working burners.  oh sure, the others look like they are on...glowing bright red they are, but there will be no heating of my food.  the two burners that do work...only cook on high.  it's fantastic.  not really.  but i shall survive.

i have tried 4 different recipes for tortillas.  each time i end up with something more the thickness of a pancake.  oddly enough, my pancakes are as thin as normal tortillas.  however, as previously noted, they taste very, very, good.  back to my tortillas....i think i'm too weak to roll them out properly.  maybe randy is right, maybe i need to do push ups.  i don't have time to do push ups, what with all my running and all...  ok, so i have done absolutely no physical activity whatsoever since we got here....besides cooking. which i'm pretty sure does not count.  well, the kids bought a trampoline, and i did jump on it a few days.  i even did a no hands flip...which hudson said i botched.  i don't think it matters how you land when you can still do a hands free flip at 35 after having 4 children and your equilibrium getting all screwed up in childbirth.  at least i think that is how it happens.  before kids-not sick on amusement park rides.  after kids-sick on amusement park rides.  do you know that the kids didn't even have the decency to tell randy of my amazing no handed flip feat?!?!  the one thing i ask them to tell their father...