Confessions from a small kitchen

I started to compose this last night but everything was still a bit raw. So here goes ...

As I shared previously, Jason and I bought some basic groceries at Walmart on Tuesday. So, of course, Wednesday morning "this girl" is SUPER excited to craft our FIRST MEAL in our new home. It was breakfast - nothing fancy - bacon, fried eggs, and toast.

Everything was moving along nicely despite space constraints... mostly. Then as I am getting ready to plate our deliciousness, what do I hear?? The darn smoke detector!! What?! There was no smoke. Well maybe a smidge - but come on!! So as we frantically try to silence the screeching (picture Jason standing underneath the offending equipment waving his arms around and me rushing to open a window) the beautiful breakfast that was lovingly and contently crafted has now become cold and, well, offending to my domestic pride. Ugh.....fine. We eat breakfast....fine.

Okay, fast forward to later in the afternoon. I'm totally stoked to break out my Lily (aka Instant Pot) and get going some yummy Ranch chicken with mashed potatoes! It's cold and dreary (even had some snowflakes flying) so what could be a better comfort meal? Looking to redeem my culinary pride, I paired the chicken and potatoes with green beans and garlic toast. Here's where things went south (for the 2nd time that day)....I didn't realize the baby oven's heating plate/element was NOT to be used as an oven rack. Timer goes off to flip the garlic toast, I open the oven and guess what we hear?? The darn smoke detector!! The bread had burnt on the baking sheet because, duh, I placed the baking sheet DIRECTLY on the metal plate above the heating element. 🤦

Now here is where my man demonstrates one of the million reasons I love him! He says, very matter-of-factly, "Babe, it's a new smoke detector so it's probably overly sensitive." Bless him - we BOTH know better. But I appreciated his attempt to soothe my ego. Additionally, my darn mashed potatoes (which are totally my jam) came out lumpy! Jason lovingly ate them...despite me knowing he despises lumpy potatoes. Oh my goodness, I love this man. ❤️

Okay, done lamenting about epic kitchen failures from yesterday. What are we up to now?? It's Halloween, our lights are on for (maybe) trick-or-treaters. Thursday night football is on the tube. Ahhhhh....insert content sigh here. Tomorrow morning we are heading west to mid-Texas (please dear Lord, give me some sunshine). We have some business to tend to so will be there for a few days. Stay tuned for fun updates - and hopefully, no more epic meal failures.