Slow cooker chicken sausage and shrimp gumbo

I love learning what tasks other people consider "easy."  And, once I've done that same task myself, I also enjoy assessing how easy I'd consider their version of easy.

For example -- ladies out there, I'm especially talking to you -- French braiding hair.  Few skills elude me quite like that one.  I can't French braid a friend's hair, much less dream of doing it to my own locks.  I've tried.  And tried.  And tried some more with no success whatsoever.

I've tried with dry curly hair, wet hair, wavy brushed hair, and three day old unwashed hair.  I've turned three strands of hair into two and knotted my hair in multiple places, but I've never created a  decent looking French braid.

The genuine rage that I've felt attempting to do so can be compared to little else, possibly only Matt's frustration with the "recalculating" function on our Garmin.  So, whenever a girl with her hair styled in a smooth and symmetrical braid chirps, "Oh, it's so easy.  You can totally do it!" I want to shout, "IT IS NOT EASY!"

Slow cooker Santa Fe chicken

Turns out I'm not always right.  Please try to bring yourselves out of that state of shock you're currently in.  In fact, I've been wrong about quite a few things, and I'm ready to come clean.

For example, a girl can have too many cardigans.  (Matt and Bryan, don't you dare say a word.)  At the beginning of the year, I cleaned out my closet and counted how many I actually owned -- 22.  Gulp.  But I did toss two into the bag of items to donate to Goodwill.  So, 20.  That sounds much better, right?

And eating four chocolate chip banana muffins right before bed will keep me awake much past my intended bedtime.  I won't sleep soundly and will be groggy the next morning and wind up skipping the early workout I'd originally planned.  Rinse and repeat a few more times, and I'll be concerned about more than just late night hyperactivity.  Coughrealmuffintopcough.

Fast Friday: Steaks with blue cheese onion sauce

Whoomp, there it is!  "It" being Friday.  Nothing like some old school Jock Jams to pump you up and get you excited for the weekend!

But, really, you don't even need Jock Jams to get your blood flowing.  You need only look at these pictures, knowing this was BY FAR the best dish I've ever made.  Like, ever ever ever.  Take that, T. Swift.

Grilled steaks with blue cheese onion sauce.  Swoon!  Be still my fluttering heart and longing taste buds.

Crock Pot baked potatoes with chili toppings

Sizzlin' slow cooker February has been a total hit in our home and for our taste buds so far, if I may say so. Soups, stews, lasagna, and even Indian food have all been ready come dinnertime with minimal human effort.  Thanks for the scrumptious meals, Louie!

But, as I reviewed the dishes I've made in the Crock Pot, I realized that all had a broth or sauce for a base. As I've learned in the past few weeks, you can cook almost anything in the slow cooker as long as there is some kind of liquid to keep the contents from drying out.

For example, I've made pulled pork by simply tossing a pork tenderloin in the crock pot, covering it with water, and cooking on low for 8 hours before draining, shredding, and mixing with our favorite Sweet Baby Ray's barbecue sauce.  Easy peasy!

Again with the liquid, though.  So, I couldn't help but wonder if it were possible to slow cook something without a broth or sauce.

Slow cooker chana masala

It's a little funny to me that two posts in a row are about me trying new things.  And this one's story began before my resolutions -- go me!

For four glorious years, I attended Pitt and was introduced to the perks of city life.  And one of the highlights was a late night dining deal offered by many of the restaurants in town: half off the food bill after 10 or 11pm.  If there's a sure fire way to attract poor students, it's to offer them large quantities of their favorite foods for a lot less cash.  A girl can only eat chicken tenders and deli sandwiches from the dining hall (Eddie's!) for so long.

One of those restaurants that my friends visited time and time again was India Garden.  They didn't just visit the place, they were downright obsessed with it!  I was a little hesitant to try it since I had this notion that all Indian food was supremely spicy and knew I couldn't handle that.  Growing up in Greensburg, I wasn't exactly bombarded with opportunities to try Indian food, so I just shelved the idea of Indian food for an undetermined amount of time.

Sometime during the summer between sophomore and junior years, my boyfriend convinced me to try Indian food... from a truck.  To be clear, I'm not knocking all food trucks (especially since their revival has been grand in the Pittsburgh area), just this one.  All you need to know is that I tried Indian food from that truck, got sick on said food from that truck, and went 8 years without dining on food from that truck or any other Indian restaurant.

That boyfriend and I broke up two years later.