Slow Cooker Cookbook

Last week when I was planning out our meals, I saw this book sitting on our bookshelf. I don't remember buying it, and neither does E.

This week, we tried 3 recipes from it:

• Pork, Pea, and Spinach Curry Soup
• Chicken Peanut Stew (we really like a non-slow cooker version of this recipe from this cookbook)
• Cuban Black Bean Stew

None of the recipes were bad, but they were all pretty average and somewhat bland. When I saw that this cookbook had a 2.5 star review on Amazon.com, I wasn't surprised. Again, the recipes weren't terrible, but they just weren't amazing.

We do really like this cookbook, though. It was one of the first cookbooks that E and I ever used together. Chicken is E's favorite meat, and I think that he borrowed the cookbook from his sister (and forgot to return it). It looks like we can buy it for a penny on Amazon.com now - maybe we should, so we can return "our" copy to E's sister :) Anyway, we've gotten some good use out of that cookbook. These are the recipes in that book that we really like:

• Indonesian chicken satays
• Jamaican jerk chicken
• Nigerian peanut and chicken stew
• jollof rice
• stir-fried chicken with greens
• chicken kabobs
• chicken with udon noodles

I get most of our recipes online, but sometimes it's nice to use a cookbook. Sometimes I will find myself making a lot of Italian and Tex-Mex recipes, and I forget about all of the other options that are out there. A cookbook allows you to browse without having to type anything into a search engine, so you might find yourself inspired to make something that you weren't originally planning on making.

Slow Cooker Pepper Steak, Chicken and Corn Pie with Cornbread Topping

It's been a while since I've reviewed recipes. Both of these recipes were delicious.

Slow Cooker Pepper Steak

• I followed the recipe, and it was really good.
• It was a little salty, even though I used lite/low-sodium soy sauce.
• I served it with rice.

Chicken and Corn Pie with Cornbread Topping

• This was a delicious recipe.
• I made this enchilada sauce up the day before. I used a little over half of it in this dish.
• I used frozen rotisserie chicken that we shredded before freezing it. The recipe called for 3 cups of chicken, but we only had 2 cups. It didn't seem to make a difference.
• I couldn't find a 6 oz. package of Mexican cornbread mix. I found a 7.4 oz. package of sweet corn cake mix. I used the whole package, and I don't think that it mattered.
• I also used 1/2 cup of shredded monterrey jack cheese and 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar cheese that I already had in my fridge instead of a Mexican cheese blend.
• Despite all of my substitutions/variations, this recipe was great. Very filling. We had it for dinner after we went for a run in some very windy and cold weather (the last time we went running outside, in fact). It was a great way to end our run.

I passed!

I passed the bar exam and will be sworn in at the end of the month. That is a huge relief.

I am thinking about starting my own law firm while continuing to work in my current part-time job. We will see what happens. I think that, as of right now, I would want it to be officially open for business in January 2010, but things could change. I'm nervous about the idea, but I also have a couple of good mentors, so I'm not as nervous about it as I once was.

I am still applying for jobs, and getting a lot of rejection letters and emails. The economy is (I'm going to state the obvious) unbelievably tough right now for job-seekers.

Rat Dog had surgery on Wednesday. He had a "mass" removed from his leg, and he had his teeth cleaned. He is not supposed to jump onto furniture or run up/down the stairs for ten days. This is supposed to prevent his stitches from ripping. He loves to run and jump, so it has been really difficult. He also has to wear a cone in order to prevent him from licking his stitches. It is really exhausting; I can't imagine how exhausting it must be to be a parent to a toddler. Dealing with post-surgery Rat Dog is enough for me right now.

We are still waiting to hear whether his mass was an infected bug bite or a bad (cancerous) tumor. I am really hoping that it was a bug bite.

Other than that, not much is new around here.