i've got to brag...just a little!

if you know me then you know that i've never been considered domesticated in any way. for example, cooking. i rarely do it. i'm not sure why, i actually do enjoy it and my family has convinced me i'm not half bad at it. and now all of us have the advantage of the pioneer woman's new cookbook, she totally makes cooking fun and easy.

the brag, my success? well i can say that the pioneer woman doesn't get any credit. nope. none. it's all me!

last night was the big dinner for kelley's class. you know the one that we were supposed to make a dish that represented our heritage. i'm a mutt. i have no heritage. so i stressed a bit on what i should make. and decided to make the dish that i make best, my stuffed shells. i learned how to make them when i was 12 or 13. my recipe is long gone and i just make them without any recipe or rules. i tweak them here or there. and really it's not a hard thing to make at all. but when it comes to my heritage, i am pretty sure i don't have much italian in me at all. which is a shame because it's my favorite food and italy is number one on my countries i'd like to visit.

but still, i was nervous. i've never cooked for a group before. let alone a group of people i hardly know. as we sat the dish down on the serving table my heart kind of sunk as there was a big pot of spaghetti and tray of lasagna. how on earth were my little shells going to stand out and compete?

we were towards the end of the serving line. and the italian dishes were at the far end of the table. i about fell over from shock! when we made our way to the shells, they were ALL GONE! there was still spaghetti and lasagna...but no shells. wow!

however, maybe they just looked good. what if the people who scooped them up didn't like them? this made me even more nervous. that is until they started raving about the stuffed shells. i blushed. and i beamed. me...undomesticated me. had the most popular dish there. and let me tell you...there was some good food, real down home cooking type of food.

so i'm totally stoked! and this actually makes me want to cook more. funny if i cooked at all, it would be cooking more. as for my stuffed shells recipe? well it's hidden away in my mind and i've decided i better just keep it that way. ha-ha i have a secret recipe! now that's funny!