It's Crunch Time

We're getting to the point in the day that calls for a good amount of creativity, otherwise known as DINNER. As much as Josh and I love cooking, sometimes we stand in the kitchen together and scratch our heads. It seems like we've done this a lot in the last few days- our refrigerator has been a little empty. So you open the refrigerator, see milk, bread, peanut butter, some combination of fruits and vegetables, chicken broth, eggs, maybe some cheese, rice, and assorted things like ketchup, syrup, salsa, baking soda, and parmesan cheese. And you say "Hmm? What can I make out of these things?" Lucky for us, our pantry has always been good to respectible, and has bailed us out on many an occasion. When you add pasta, canned tomatoes, tuna, beans, and spices to the mix, some possibilities begin to surface.

I am anticipating that tonight will be one of those head scratching nights. Josh usually throws out some interesting sounding combinations (bless his heart) like french fries and asparagus, or rice and potatoes, which would be filling but somewhat unappetizing if you're me. Sometimes we do go that route. We've been known to put dinner on the table consisting of green beans, pineapple, and popcorn. But we usually stand there and scratch our heads a little bit longer, and voila! Someone has a genius idea, combining the best of our refrigerator contents with the best of our pantry. For example, last Monday night just when we were about to surrender to asparagus and french fries, or something like it, we realized that we had all of the ingredients for tuna noodle casserole, which was amazing. I've got to tell you, dishes taste all the better when you know what you almost ate for dinner and how much ingenuity it took for you to figure out that you could make the dish of choice. Another example is last Saturday. Out of what seemed like a very, very bare refrigerator came vegetarian jambalaya. Yum! These moments of realized genius reinforce our belief that good food can be created even out of the apparent bleakest of supplies.

So here's to a good dinner! Let's hope that tonight does not disappoint.