My favorite kind of Sunday

I spent Sunday afternoon breaking in my new kitchen. I've cooked a few meals - spaghetti, pancakes, frozen sweet potato fries. The usual. But Sunday I spent the entire afternoon and evening in the kitchen, putting my shiny new appliances through their paces and in general (according to Nick) acting exactly like my mom, who basically lives in her kitchen and wouldn't even notice if the rest of the house disappeared. And can I just tell you, this kitchen fits me like a brand new pair of Cole Haans - juuuust right.

Now I took pictures, but they don't make my food look appetizing. Like at all. I either need to learn how to photograph food or stop blogging about it I suppose, but my 1000 words will just have to do for now.

1) Beef stew: Among my favorite comfort foods. And I'd been wanting it for weeks but couldn't make it because I had no functional stove. Oh, it smelled so good. So, so good. We like it plain and simple - just carrots, potatoes, and lots of perfectly browned beef. But what good is beef stew without...

2) Homemade bread: Now before you go applauding me too much, let me come clean and make it known that I use a bread machine. I like baking bread by hand from scratch, but it is so time sensitive and takes up so much of the day. I knew I had a lot to accomplish, so me and my Breadman teamed up. And I can't even tell you how good our whole house smelled. Maybe instead of using oil diffusers or candles I should just bake lots and lots of bread. And pretending it would last through the beef stew, I also made...

3) white chicken chili: Introduced to me from Kimberly by way of Jamie (after Ellison was born), this one is almost embarrassingly easy. You literally dump cans (and a package of chicken breasts) into the crock pot and walk away for 8 hours. No chopping. No browning the meat before you put it in. Just shred the chicken at the end while you talk to a good friend you've been missing lately (like Meagan), and oila! Magical deliciousness. But now all this savory has left me with a hankering for something sweet, and I still haven't used my oven today...

4) Nutella-stuffed browned butter chocolate chip cookies: Also from Kimberly (thanks, Abbie, for organizing the WUBC cookbook!). I've been totally digging cookies lately but was getting tired of the same ol', same ol' chocolate chip. No, wait. That's a lie. I never get tired of those. But in my adventurous culinary mentality of the weekend, I wanted to try something a bit more challenging. And I do admit these cookies were a bit of work, and I nearly forgot the sprinkle of sea salt right at the end. But oh, so worth it. So. Stinkin'. Good. I mean, so good. I'm actually fighting the urge to abandon this blog post right now and go eat yet another one.

And the best part? As I stood at my swank new drop-in gas cooktop, I could see and talk to Nick and Ellison in the living room. No more kitchen solitary confinement! You should come over sometime; I've got a tall stack of recipes ready and waiting for a guinea pig.