Happy Friday everyone! Hope you all have amazing weekend plans. By amazing, I mean, I hope you can sit on your couch in a onesie, and binge watch your favorite show. My office’s Thanksgiving dinner was on Wednesday. People know me for my style, my art, and my singing not cooking. I’ve been afraid to fail, so I don’t even attempt cooking,  During the summer, Jennifer,( I still call her JG), gave me a recipe for a shrimp boil with the intention of forcing me out of my “non cooking” comfort zone. She let me call her as I cooked so that I had an experienced coach providing guidance. The results of my boil were astonishing! You can’t imagine how proud I was! The shrimp was cooked to perfection. My potatoes were nice, not to hard or mushy. The seasoning was great! After such a great first meal, I was fearful of following up with another attempt because I thought that the second attempt would be a fluke.

Last year, at my first Thanksgiving meal, I was responsible for bringing the rolls. Simple task, you’re probably thinking. Actually no. My dad buttered and baked Sister Shebert rolls for me so that I couldn’t mess up the rolls.  A few minutes before the meal commenced, I stuck the rolls in the toaster. To prevent destruction of my rolls, I asked my coworkers, who use that toaster regularly to make cookies for clients, if that toaster performs speedily or slowly. After much assurance, I place the rolls in the oven. If only we had a microwave! The bottoms of the rolls burned. Everyone had to eat the tops. Epic Fail!

This year was going to be different. One of my coworkers made a tasty broccoli casserole. I figured that I could make that too. I went to Kroger the night before, bought 3 bags of already cooked chicken strips, two bags of broccoli florets,cream of mushroom soup, lemon juice, and sour cream. I microwaved the broccoli and chicken. While I was doing that, my mom cooked half a bag of long grained white rice.Then I mixed the broccoli, chicken, and rice with sour cream, salt, pepper, lemon juice, and onion powder into a big bowl. Stir, Stir, Stir! Bake for 30- 40 minutes and done. My dad supervised the food because our oven cooks quickly.
My second attempt at cooking was successful. Everyone at work liked my casserole!

This is how my casserole looked before I placed it in the oven! I layered so much sharp cheddar cheese on the top and inside of this casserole.

 Here’s the finished product! Mmmm, It was so good!

The Downside.
One lady that joined us for dinner is allergic to mushrooms. She never asked about the contents of our dishes so I was unaware of her allergy. The mushrooms in my casserole upset her stomach. She threw up 😦 I was completely devastated
This was a lesson in life for me. You can try your hardest, you can plan for a perfect execution and still have mishaps. Yet again, I was reminded that shit happens.It’s an inevitable truth. Although I was completely embarrassed that my meal nearly killed someone, I’ll cook again. I can’t continue to live cautiously, simply because I have fear of failing. Actually, I’m a pretty good cook. I just need to be more confident.

My mom is always hounding me about learning to cook so I can please my potential boyfriends/ husband. Honestly, as a young woman, I need to know how to cook for survival. In 2016, I’m planning to not be in my parents home. Cooking will be necessary for saving money. I was able to eat off of this casserole for two days! Eating out constantly is quite expensive! My goal for the rest of the year as well as 2016, is to make one dish a week. Since the holidays are approaching, I want to work on perfecting desserts and meats. For the future, I want to perfect mac n cheese and turnip greens.

I am completely against the commercialization of the holidays. Still, I have my favorite holiday items. What are some of favorite holiday dishes? Feel free to drop recipes in my comment section!
What are a few dishes that you are still trying to perfect?

Until next time,
-Nora (Chef Norrawr)