New direction

Well, kids. I've got me some braces.

I haven't cooked since the separators went in a few weeks ago. Well, outside of my mashed potatoes with peas experiment? I cooked nada.

My poor husband has been feeding himself since then, more or less.

Now that the braces are actually in, I haven't eaten anything really solid in a few days. And I expect that every month after tightening, I'm going to be begging for something soft and liquidy AND delicious.

All those soup and puree recipes I tossed out? Yep. Regretting doing that now. But I'm sure y'all will provide me with enough inspiration and guidance to find some more.

Sometime this weekend, I will have to completely restock my fridge and pantry with soups and other mush-able veggies. AND I will need to purchase a hand blender.

Definitely, I'm whipping up Giada's sweet pea and mint puree and freeze them in little baggies at some point this weekend.

Because a girl can only drink Muscle Milk and mush up Animal Crackers for so many days.

Now, about that potatoes and peas experiment. It was an experiment born of complete burn-out on soup...and the fact that my eyes were dilated from the optometrist that I couldn't leave the house to go buy anything else to eat. So I raided the pantry and the fridge.

I didn't know how it was going to turn out so I didn't take a picture. And it actually was pretty damn tasty!

Mashed Potatoes and Peas

The "recipe" is totally adjustable to how many potatoes you have or want to cook.

Boil up some baby Yukon gold potatoes (halved or quartered) with a few cloves of garlic (smashed and peeled) and salt. Drain and smash them around a little bit.

I did remove the skin once the potatoes were cooked. It was easier that way. (Then again, I didn't think I could chew the skin.) But that's really optional.

In another pot, heat up some butter, the amount you would use to mash the potatoes, with a few sprigs of thyme. When that sizzled, add frozen green peas, season, and saute that around. When the peas started to get mushy, add cream--again, just about the amount you'd use to mash the potatoes with--and heat through.

Take out the thyme sprigs before pouring the butter/cream/peas mixture into the potatoes. Now mash around some more.

Add a handful of Parmesan cheese and a pinch of pepper. Mash some more. Serve.