Cooking, that is. What a day! I feel super pregnant and tired. The crazy thing is, I also went to the gym, visited with a friend, took a nap, and gave my daughter a bath (as well as played with her).

What I cooked today:

Croutons (85): not an actual recipe, but in the book. I had an extra loaf of my sourdough bread, so I decided to make croutons so I can make the Thanksgiving stuffing. They smell amazing, I’m really looking forward to it.

Pumpkin puree: I’ve been overtaken with a desire for fresh pumpkin puree. Fortunately, it’s very easy and it baked while I was at the gym.

Monterey Beans and Cheese (102): Turned out well - I ate half the recipe all by myself, which is supposed to feed 3 people. I guess I didn’t make rice with it. I’ve been making brown rice for about 4 years now, and just in the past two weeks it’s suddenly become a hassle. WTF? No clue. It takes nearly an hour to cook, but that’s never stopped me before. The beans took 15-20 minutes. I think I didn’t add quite enough cheese, which would have made them even better. They’re ready fast, but the longer the spices sit in the beans the better they taste.

Easy No-Knead Whole Wheat Bread (58): Great. I ran out of energy to make my sourdough a few days ago, so I made this today. It’s like a bread machine recipe for those of us without a bread machine. Only takes about 2 hours (which is very fast for yeast bread) tastes great, and doesn’t make a mess on the counter because you don’t knead it. I’m definitely going to be making it again.

Dutch Apple Bread (81): I haven’t tasted this yet, but it smells like a cookie and the dough was a lot like cookie dough. It’s different from most recipes with apples, in that it doesn’t take cinnamon or nutmeg. I can’t wait to sample some at Bible Study tomorrow. Seriously, like a cookie in a bread pan.

Chicken-Pineapple Skillet (182): It’s like stir-fry. I like it a lot. As it turns out, Reese doesn’t like pineapple or cooked celery. Brian liked it fine.

Yesterday: Cheese Grits Casserole (160). I was the only one who liked this. I thought it was tasty, but Reese gagged on it and Brian declared it too cheesy. Whatever.