because i love food.

I made homemade potato salad tonight.

I'm mean . . . there was no potato salad, and then I cooked potatoes and boiled eggs and chopped pickles and mixed mayo and mustard . . . and then there was potato salad. Is it lame that I'm proud of that? I love potato salad. It is yummy. And while mine was nowhere near as fab as my dad's, it was only the first batch of many.

You see, I don't cook.

I know lots of people say that but really they can, but I really just am not that good at it.

For the first 4 years of our marriage, Chris cooked probably 80% of the time. Chris is a good cook. It is relaxing to him. He enjoys it. I do not. And if we wanted food that tasted good, Chris had to cook it. We were both going to school and/or working, so we came home together and I would do something productive (or watch tv . . . ) while he made us dinner. And when I was pregnant, we would come home, I would sleep while he cooked, he would wake me up to eat, I would go back to sleep, and he would wake me up to go to bed. Oh, those were some good times. But even after I had Carly and I stayed home and Chris was gone all day, he would still come home from school in Tennessee and make me dinner. It was a good set-up for me.

Then we moved to Michigan.

The thing about his current program? Its way hard.

It takes so much time, so much energy.

Upon moving here and starting that program, one thing became very clear to me:

I would be in charge of the food.

So over the past almost-year, I've been working on expanding my horizons. I started off with the basics, and now can make most of our "typical" meals without even burning anything. So I've gradually been trying to add new things. Like I learned to make beef and broccoli. And I learned to make tilapia. And my mom's mowed grass. And . . . ok, I'm sure there is more.

But the point is, I'm trying.

And I'm getting better.

And I made potato salad with only two texts to my mom and one phone call with my dad.

Things brings me to someone who can cook.

And I mean really cook.

My brother married a girl from Texas, and she can cook.

She has a cooking/baking/entertaining blog called

The Apron Gal.

She is cute, her blog is cute.

But the best part is that it is realistic.

No crazy long or complicated recipes.

I mean, I can use these recipes, that shows you how possible they are.

She also just happened to go to Europe for 5 weeks (I'm not jealous . . . I'm not jealous . . . ) so I'm looking forward to some great recipes from Italy (ok, probably not wheaty Italy, but you can!), Spain, and France.

So if you're looking for something new to make for dinner, or dessert, or lunch, or a snack, or a party, check her out.

Oh, and enter to win a super cute apron here.

She is The Apron Gal, after all.

~

Oh, and because I had to share . . .

We went to the local Farmers Market today and one of the booths was a gluten free bakery. The lady has Celiac, as does her mother and daughter. They all have red hair, so she said her husband jokes that all Celiacs are redheads (ha!). Anywho . . . she had a plethora of yummy looking GF goodies. I left with the blueberry muffins, but I'll be back for the cinnamon rolls. And the pita bread. And the apple pie muffins. And a loaf of bread. Or two.

[isn't she lovely?]

Ok, now I'm hungry.

Potato salad, anyone?

xoxo.