Someone's in the Kitchen with Mama

I spent quality time with the kitchen today. Lately, my time in the kitchen has consisted of making my morning cup of tea and my toast. Then add a few minutes on top of that for getting drinks and putting the cups in the dishwasher. And two more for mixing Jackson's cereal in a tea cup. I really prefer those to bowls. I've definitely been in a cooking slump. Curt's been gingerly hinting at the fact that the kitchen misses me. Yesterday morning I found my frying pan on the back porch full of brownish water and you're-never-gonna-get-me-up-black-stuff. I called him at work for an explanation. (In an apparent experiment) He had cooked barbecue chicken breasts in the pan the night before and the b.b.q. sauce had ignited. Maybe not ignited, but it definitely smoked up the house to the extent that he had to put it on the back porch. Ever one to downplay such things and keep them from my attention, he never mentioned it. All I knew was that the house smelled like burnt nastiness and no amount of Febreeze air freshener would get rid of it. Remember that episode of Everybody Loves Raymond when a suitcase is left out for a really long time because neither Ray nor Debra will accept responsibility for putting it away? Well, the pan is still on the back porch. We'll see what happens. I took the hint that Curtis was ready for me to reunite with my kitchen. So tonight I made one of my husband's favorite meals - chicken cheddar rice bake. (Thank you, Nancy Mattingly.) His favorite part is the cheese that goes over the casserole and melts. To my great dismay, when I took it out of the oven I saw that the cheese had melted in a really bizarre way. Then I touched it. And it was crispy. I shrieked and threw open the refrigerator door to find the package of shredded cheese. Just as I suspected - it was fat free cheese! I know, it's so sad.

Hanging out with Mom in the kitchen


He was surpisingly possessive of the spatula


We woke up this morning and there was a curl!