Learn to like COOKING!!

For all of you that really know me, you know that Cindi and Kitchen are two words that don´t go together, AT ALL!! I have NEVER enjoyed cooking. I´m a big fan of food...food that is made by OTHER people. But in January, like everyone else, David and I sat down and made some goals for this year. One of these goals was to invite people over for dinner ( sounds like a silly goal, but it´s not). Some of these people are just friends we want to have over and others are people in our ward that we feel like we need to befriend. Because of this goal I´ve been able to work on a personal goal...COOKING.
This last weekend we had a couple come over for dinner and I was having a hard time thinking of something to make. The hardest part about dinner (besides the fact that I don´t like cooking) is that over here it´s really LATE, I mean, 9:00 at night. Because it´s so late I don´t really like making pasta or steak or potatoes, things that are really heavy. This makes things even more complicated. Finally, after searching for a new yummy/easy recipe and not finding one, I decided that since the stuffed eggplants were a success at David´s birthday party I would make stuffed bell peppers. But when I told David he didn´t like

the idea. He had never had stuffed bell peppers. So, I made some of each...eggplant and bell peppers. (By the way, he did end up really liking the stuffed bell peppers!) The other thing that is difficult over here is that they don´t only have one course... you have to have appetizers. Again, I didn´t want something that was too heavy. I was going to make the Spinach-artichoke dip because it´s always a success, but I also have the problem that I´m on the no carb diet and I knew that if I made the dip I wouldn´t be able to NOT eat it. So, I checked out my favorite recipe web site (http://www.allrecipes.com/) where I found a recipe for Orange-glazed asparagus.

Anyway, I ended up with a dinner consisting of orange-glazed asparagus, sauteed mushrooms with ham and garlic and guacamole with chips (that was David´s contribution, he wanted to make guacamole) for the appetizers and stuffed eggplant and bell peppers for the main course.
Of course being a true Ginn the dessert had to be yummy, not just fruit or yogurt like they have here. I made 4 large chocolate oatmeal cookies (that I baked after we ate so they would be served warm) with vanilla ice cream. (Yes Nathan, I ate dessert even though I shouldn´t have!!)

So, SLOWLY but surely Cindi Ginn is learning to enjoy cooking! This just goes to show that miracles do happen!!