Unless you count washing dishes, I have no particular talent in the kitchen. I can’t “eyeball” measurements like my Mother can, I have no idea what “season to taste” is supposed to mean, and “golden brown” easily becomes “burnt black” when I am in charge. Recently, however, a recipe for something new fell into my lap, and I couldn’t resist having a whirl. The ingredients went something like this:

  • one box of goodies sent to us from Nathan’s parents
  • a touch of Christmas nostalgia
  • one persistent craving for a Slurpee
  • one nacho-fanatic husband
  • a pinch of homework-free days
  • a ray of sunshine making the kitchen the most desirable place to be

Several round of pots and pans and a few days later, four scrumptious new dishes had been stirred, grated, rolled, boiled, grilled, frozen…and licked clean. Here are the results:

Cranberry-Orange Bread, inspired by a bag of soft, dried cranberries sent by Nathan’s parents. The freshly grated orange rind in this loaf makes it smell wonderful, and even though it is usually baked as a Christmas tradition, our boiled version tasted almost as good in May.
Cranberry-Orange Bread

Iced-coffee-slush, reminiscent of the kind I used to slurp while driving around on a hot summer day in Canada. This was the closest I could come to slurpee-making, but I am not at all disappointed. Topped with a drizzle of maple syrup, this is so good!

Iced Coffee

Vegetarian Sloppy-Joe’s, thanks to a seasoning packet that came in our goodie box. We decided to try buckwheat as a ground beef substitute, and were surprised…it worked!

Sloppy Joe's

Nachos made from scratch. The jar of Cheez Whiz that Nathan’s parents sent was the perfect thing to go with nachos, but we couldn’t find any unflavoured ones at our local stores. Finally, I decided to attempt making tortillas using a recipe from my culinarily astute cousin-in-law. The process of mixing, kneading, resting, cooking, cutting, oiling, and grilling the tortillas into nachos was a lot of work, but the fun of dipping them into gooey, melted Cheez Whiz made it all worth it. And they must have been pretty good, because they are all gone…even the burnt ones.

Nachos