This is the last (cheese) straw!

Let me start this post with the appropriate tone.  This was my mood last night:

This was Kini's:

And this was Grisgris'.  Shelby was her usual reclusive self.

Last night was the fifth night in a row that I've cooked this week.  Usually by Wednesday I manage to convince Nick that we really want to go out for dinner, and he usually obliges.  This week, no such luck.  It was mostly seafood, so he wanted to "get it out of the way" as quickly as possible.  Harumph.  Last night we had the fish soup.  I thought it was delish.  I also like fish.  I understand that's an acquired taste (thanks, Mom and Dad!), so this may not be for everyone...that said, Nick said, "As far as fish soups go, this one was good.  But it was still fish soup."

Cooking up the rice, onions, and garlic.

I don't think these are mung beans, but they're green and they were in the Asian food section, so I used them anyway.

Cod and shrimp, ready to go.

Boiling everything.

YUM!  I had about two bowls of it.  Nick had about 2 bites. 

Shelby got the rest.  She SCARFED this down.  I take that as a compliment.

After dinner, there was a little dancing. You can tell Kini enjoys this by the way she recoils when you pick her up. 

Then, down to business.  First, play with the camera a bit.

This is the shredder I used to shred that entire lb of cheese.

Did you know dogs LOVE cheese?  Kini does.  Every time I looked up, she'd inched closer.  Then she'd be on my foot.  Then I'd stomp and kick her out and she'd go to her mat and the process would start over.  In the end, I gave her a small piece, but made her work for it.  Silly dog.

It took a while, but eventually this is how it looked according to my mom's recipe. 

I tried to use an icing bag, but this is all that came out.  Two tiny cheese turds. 

I added more water (about a cup actually) and it eventually moistened up a bit, but by that time it was too late...I broke the icing bag.  So I mashed it all out on a pan and cut it with a pizza cutter. 

Not exactly my gramma's cheese straws, but they worked, more or less. They're definitely squishier than hers. 

Nick wanted to prove that he could make popcorn all by himself, and this was the result.  He called it "Still Life Popcorn Maker".  It tasted just fine.

This morning, Nick woke up a few minutes before I did and had these cooking, cruelly, while I was on the treadmill.  Talk about motivation, huh?  He's all mine, ladies, sorry.  :-D