reality check

i've been eating well this week. i don't often blog about food here (kind of ironic, considering the title of my blog and all.) i read beautiful foodie posts, and get tons of inspiration thanks to their mouth-watering photography. often, when i'm preparing a meal, i think i should take some pictures. but there are just not enough hours in the day for me to stylize my measured dry ingredients and freshly squeezed lemons. and usually by the time i think to photo the finished product, we're halfway through our meals and having a lively discussion about who is going to clean up the kitchen.

also, despite my love of words, and sentences of words, and paragraphs of words, a reviewer i am not. a few notes and my very scientific 5-star rating system scribbled into the margins of some old cookbooks tell me all i need to remember about a particular dish. (given that most of the recipes i use now come from the www, i rely heavily on "bookmarking." that and my uncanny ability to remember which bloggers make great chicken enchiladas, pumpkin cookies, rye limpa bread, or even a favorite sandwich.)

so, despite the fact that there are no photos, and i am not going to wax poetic about the amount of squash i've eaten in the past week, here is a sampling of what was served up at the erickson's house this week:

Turky Chili and Sweet Potato Shepherd's Pie (Rachel Ray) *****

Shoo Vampire Soup (Martha Stewart)(no link to be found - i used my trusty 2000 Halloween Issue) ****

Stuffed Squash (Alton Brown) ****

Spaghetti Squash with meat sauce (Matty Erickson) *****

Mummy Sandwich (the lovely Joys of Home blog) ****

Chicken Mug Pie (Rachel Ray) *****

as i read back over this list,i am reminded of some lovely meals this week. and it occurred to me that (sometimes) weeks full of meals like this one are the exception, not the norm. my reality is that there is often a pizza night in the mix. (sometimes two!) my reality is that four out of five nights i am stopping at the grocery on the way home from work. and not for just one key ingredient. often i haven't decided on the evenings meal until five minutes before i walk out of my office. my reality is that my husband studied the culinary arts, and apparantly did not take one single class on washing dishes.

maybe i hesitate to share my cooking adventures, because of the lack of gorgeous photos, or a succint and savory review of the meal. maybe i think that my meals don't stack up to some of those that you have shared. (am i the only one that ever thinks that?)

unfortunately, i have stumbled with hesitations like this most of my life. a bit of the "grass is always greener" syndrome. i've wasted some precious time trying to keep up with the jones family (and the murphy family, and the smith family...)

but this week, we ate well. and added several recipes to our family favorites. we only ate pizza once, and that was after a late, chilly soccer game. but just in case you spend half a second worrying about keeping up with the erickson family, let me just put some perspective on it.



my reality: i can't make a decent looking mummy sandwich. don't get me wrong. i can see vast improvement over last year's attempt. at least this year's attempt "resembles" something "wrapped."



and truthfully? we would not have revisited the mummy sandwich this year had jack not declared it a "family tradition." (tradition? after a sad attempt one year? oh-kaaaaay...) but how could i deny my son his hallowe'en memories?