"cooking".

i have struggled with cooking since i got married. i hate it. i thought i was lazy or a bad wife until i started all this work on my apartment. a lazy person does not paint 3 pieces of furniture in a day. or take on an entire room to paint by herself. or spend 4 hours at a table "crafting". that's when it hit me, i am not lazy. i just HATE cooking. i hate making the kitchen messy. i hate my tiny little counter space. i hate standing there for an hour just chopping stuff. then what i really really hate is the whole clean-up afterwards. ugh. no thank you. i mean, would you want to cook in here?

yah, there's not much space on the opposite counter either. i do half my chopping on the stove for crying out loud. sheesh.

now, i realize i am a wife of a hard working man. so i get past my aversion to cooking so i make sure phil is usually coming home to some good food. i want to show my appreciation for his hard work supporting our family. so i get around my hatred of cooking by making things that i think are just so yummy. if i know one of my favorite meals is coming at the end of all this, then it makes it easier somehow to overcome. which brings me to one of my favorite favorite favorite meals. it can be found here. holy cow this is the best salad ever. the only thing i do differently is that i marinate the chicken all day and we don't have a grill, so i just dump italian dressing in a pan and cook the chicken in that. there is a review a person left that says something like if you've ever craved something and didn't know what you were craving, it is probably this salad. that is so true! it's so weird! the salad is cold and hot, sweet, crisp, creamy, cheesy.... oh. my. gosh. it's so good. so when i know i am making this, it's much easier to force myself to chop and chop because i know at the end i will have this:

yummy yummy yummy!

seriously try this salad. it's the best summer salad i've had. you will not regret it. : )

and this is just one more way that working on my space has given me freedom. i thought i was a lazy bad wife for not feeling like cooking every day. then i realized i just don't like it.. which has somehow made it easier for me to do. i don't feel like i am overcoming laziness, but just a dislike for being in the kitchen. it takes all the guilt away for not wanting to cook! who would have thought decorating would teach me so much about myself and give me so much freedom? it is so. awesome. : )