Not Always Gourmet

In case you haven't noticed, Darrell and I like to cook (and, subsequently, eat). We also really like to make large enough portions of our food to ensure that we have leftovers to take for lunch. It's so much easier in the morning to just grab a container out of the fridge instead of needing to worry about making a sandwich or spending the money to eat out. However, most of my co-workers don't cook a lot, and therefore rarely bring in leftovers (with the exception of the occasional restaurant leftover). So when I show up with my home-cooked meal, they always think it's a big deal and that Darrell and I spend "so much" time in the kitchen. And I suppose that some of our recipes do have somewhat complex sounding names (Panko-Crusted Pork with Plum Sauce, Chicken Penne al Fresco, and Chipolte Pork Tacos with Pineapple Salsa, to name a few favorites), but that doesn't mean the recipes themselves are complicated. We can do most of these recipes in the time it would take us to pre-heat the oven and cook a frozen pizza. And I do understand that a lot of my co-workers have kids, but on my first night babysitting my friends 10-month old I was still able to prepare lasagna for dinner. So I know that it can be done (I don't mean to sound critical of families who take significant shortcuts when it comes to preparing family meals because I understand that everyone has different priorities. It just so happens that food is one of our priorities, and I see us remaining committed to this kind of cooking even once we have a family).

I don't think that any of this makes us gourmet, though. In fact, I think we are far from it. Aside from occasionally using a few "unusual" ingredients, Darrell and I don't really get too experimental with our food. We rarely cook without a recipe, and when we do, it's usually because we've made the meal so many times that we have it memorized. Additionally, we don't exactly have the palates to be able to "know" what food combinations will work and what ones work. We've definitely tried many a recipe with an eye-brow raised questioning the outcome, and we're generally quite impressed (and realize that we never would have come up with that combination on our own).

So, as proof that we aren't always "gourmet", I figured that I'd share our pre-Super Bowl dinner.

A simple meal of tacos (although we use a homemade seasoning, so I guess that's a step up from the norm), enjoyed on the floor of our living room so that we could continue our pre-Super Bowl Psych marathon.

There you have it. About as un-gourmet as you can get. And believe me, tacos are quite a staple in our house. So to everyone out there who thinks we are always "fancy", you're badly mistaken. It's just that it's hard for our simple meal of chicken tacos or lasagna not to look gourmet when it's up against your daily cold-cut sandwich or container of Campbell's Soup at Hand. And for the record--I do get a little jealous when you talk about eating out on a weekly/bi-weekly basis, but when I remind myself how much money we are saving and how much healthier we are being, I get over it pretty quickly. And I'm secretly flattered that you think we are gourmet, even though I know we certainly aren't. Maybe someday we'll be gourmet enough to be like my good friend Whitney who creates most of her own recipes (from deep-dish pizza to a variety of cupcake flavors), but for now we're content sticking with our recipes and occasional branching out to try new ingredients (we've had our eye on an eggplant parmesan, but neither of us have ever cooked with eggplant so we're a little intimidated by it!).