A Welcome Distraction

I think Colby likes it when I'm bored, and today I was. I seriously sat around all day, studying tobacco cessation and watching WAYYY too much TV. Finally, around 5 o'clock, I decided I couldn't just sit any longer. Inspired by the culinary wizardry of my Food Network friends, I whipped up something tasty for my sweetie. This was a bit of a challenge for me, as I'm on the tail-end of the low-carb torture stint from Hades and have been battling the flu, but I've really missed cooking and desperately needed to do something productive. Plus, I've felt this crazy need to "make up" for last week's tasty-but-ugly homemade lasagne....I made up my own recipe, and Colby really loved it; however, its glaring unattractiveness necessitated its omission from my blog.

For dinner, I made an Italian chicken pot pie, a slight adaptation on the Barefoot Contessa's recipe. I didn't have all the same vegetables, so I used potatoes, corn, and asparagus. I added about 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese and a packet of dry Italian dressing mix to the sauce, then sprinkled a shredded Parmesan/Asiago mixture on the crust before baking it. I think it looked pretty; Colby said the cheese made the crust a little crunchy. He really liked it, so I guess I will add that to my list of regulars. I may have to invest in some smaller oven-safe dishes, though; I really like Ina's suggestion of making individual-sized pies rather than one large one. I actually ended up with a lot of extra crust and am not sure what I'll do with it.



Dessert was a batch of Tyler Florence's Amaretto Chocolate Brownies. I substituted slivered almonds for the walnuts, and used 1 teaspoon of almond extract in place of the amaretto. I wish my picture looked prettier. When I watched Tyler make these on his show today, his were all huge and chunky....mine looked perfect when I pulled them out of the oven, but as they cooled, the middle caved in. Does anyone know how to prevent that? Either way, they smelled good and were ultra-tempting to me. Colby said they were delish, so I will have to attempt these again as soon as sugar and flour are legal again.



So, it was a fun diversion and only made a little bit of a mess. Hopefully it'll keep Colby from complaining that "we don't have any food" for at least a few more days. Unfortunately, I still feel like dirt. My throat is killing me and I sound like I swallowed a bag of nails. I have to go to classes in the morning, but I think I will skip out on my early-morning weight training class so I can get a little extra sleep before my DH4 test...