An Empty Nester Eats

Many parents are now living in an empty nest. The kids are tucked away at college or in their new apartments,, What used to be a house full of noise and fun is now quiet. It's even worse in the kitchen when it's back to cooking and eating for two or even possibly one.

What happens when you;re one of those empty nesters?Firstly embrace this . Don;t just give up the want or passion to cook.  You're still there. You deserve hot healthy meals and fun treats. It's tempting to give in to eating take out every other day. Maybe save the Burger King or Chinese for a Saturday or Sunday night.It's also time to look at your cooking space and adapting it for this new phase. This si also a great time to reconnect for friends, You can still cook big meals for a fun Saturday night cocktail and dinner party or a boozy(or not so boozy) brunch, These are the times to think back to when your were single or just married. Did  you have friends over? Wasn;t it fun to have those parties and wouldn;t it be nice to have them again? Start looking at your good dishes and champagne glasses again. Start planning fun recipes  to make like duck l'orange or beef Wellington. Entertain friends and office mates with the dishes your kids turned their noses at like escargot and calamari. 

 However for daily life  store those big pots and pans away. Save them for those dinner parties or  holidays when you know you'll be cooking for a full house. Buy smaller amounts of the foods you usually cook.Instead of a dozen eggs settle for six. Try hamburger patties in packages of four instead of eight. Buy smaller containers of milk and juice.  This is the time to splurge on more expensive ingredients too.  Get those sticks of Kerry Gold butter if you want. They're going to last longer with one or two people in the house.Treat yourselves or self to a T-bone steak or filet mignon now. Break up the mid week doldrums with scallops or lobster tails. Another idea is cooking for two days. You probably did this when you had a full house but on a larger scale. Make a pasta for two that can be a great Sunday dinner and then turn into Monday supper leftovers.A small meat loaf is perfect for a weekend and then cut it up for  work day sandwiches.  You can still bake too. Just cut down on the amount. Try baking in micro batches .

Empty nesting is hard. Yet it can be a great time for all sorts of fun and lush foods too.. Embrace this time with tasty meals and fun treats.

Baking Extravaganza Day Two Cookies

Today was the cookie extravaganza. I went the quick route using a mix . To be honest I haven't baked cookies in  a long time so I was a tad rusty. Honestly, there were a lot of mistakes and hair pulling moments.

First of all I microwaved the butter - again the good Irish butter Kerry Gold.Do it for 10 seconds.It lets the butter get soft while still maintaining its' shape.

This is the mix, the Betty Crocker oatmeal cookie one. It requires the butter one egg and a tablespoon o

of cold tap water. It was a hard mix with me adding I Can't Believe It's Not Butter to get

it somewhat malleable.I added mini chocolate chips, the Stop & Shop brand to make it that much special

These are the two sheets I used. One is a mega sheet I just bought at Target.You can't see the details, but the surface is pebbled to create a better heat flow around the dough.The other is my Mom's old cookie sheet that has been through a lot.

Unfortunately I misread the directions and instead of teaspoon sized ball I used the tablespoon size instead. The first batch came out somewhat raw.and chewy.. Subsequent batches were then scaled down to the proper size. They burned It was a headache of a bake, although the cookies came out somewhat O.K.They were baked in a 375 degree Farenheit oven at ten to fifteen minutes a batch.

They look relatively fine, they taste yummy but next time I will make oatmeal cookies from scratch . I don't like the mixes.

So that was my two day , tiring but a learning experience. Next time I will space out the baking. Two days in a row is just too darned much.