Cooking Kick

Me and Becca have been on a major cooking kick the past few months. B, me and my mom went to see Julie and Julia. It was the perfect movie for us to watch since we have so into cooking lately. It was a cute movie and nice to spend the afternoon with them. We even finished the afternoon with a trip to Kroger to grab a few things. Becca and I spend about 80% of our conversations talking about food, recipes, cooking shows and shopping for food. It's hilarious! And add Kroger to our list of things we talk about - I love Walmart for my basics because it is cheaper and they will price match, but Kroger has way better produce, deli and bakery (don't even get me started on their freshly made tortillas - awesome!). Our mom was always a good cook but she tends to stay pretty basic. Our grandmothers both cook like any good grandmother should with lots of southern favorites. Over the past few years we have figured out that we want to be more adventurous in our cooking and seem to have recently found our groove. Scott and Conner both think we are crazy but are sure enjoying the meals! I have been trying to watch what I eat and I do a better job of that if I am trying out new healthy recipes. I love summer when everything is so fresh, in season and CHEAP! Gotta take advantage while it's here - soon enough the produce will go back to it's less than amazing status. I have found a few new favorites and have really enjoyed making them. I like to spend Sundays cooking and it's nice to have some stuff prepped and ready for the work week. Becca just sent me a new recipe today for oven fries that look awesome. I sent her one for spinach/artichoke dip from Cooking Light. Looks really good and I plan to use it to stuff pork chops and add into my quiche. Like I said, we have been crazy with the new recipes! I really like this phase of my relationship with Becca. I saw a friend at a shower this weekend and she was talking about how even though she has three little ones she wishes she could have one more girl because she has two boys and one girl right now. I had not even thought about that but how true - if we had another baby and it was a girl I would feel so said for her not to have a sister. There is something pretty special about it; in a weird way that I don't even typically talk about. Because there are three of us, we have always had plenty of sisterly love and always an extra ear to listen when we wanna complain about the the other sister (which ever one that might be at the moment!). Ha ha! No seriously - I like that we are all grown up and able to relate on a much deeper level now that they are married and more in the same phase of life that I have been in for a while now. Seemed like they would never catch up and then all the sudden they have. It was something that I used to only have with my girlfriends - I mean, I love my girlfriends too and of course they are like my sisters too, but it's nice to have my actual sisters in the mix now! For example, yesterday I spent about 30 minutes on the phone with Becca talking about what I was buying at the store and what I planned to cook that night. I then went home and started working on the recipes. I took her the some of the leftover ingredients - rotisserie chicken, heavy cream and celery so that she could use them for a different dish. I also took her some of the chicken dumplings that I had made since Scott can't eat chicken. She even picked up a few of the things on her grocery run for me that I forgot since I was coming over anyways. It just worked out perfectly. Not sure how long our cooking phase will last but at least I know our sisterly love will last a lifetime!