Mission 1: Out with the Old

Considering the fact that my current diet consists of 2 oreo cookies and a latte during the day, I figured this blog was a good intervention idea. Life never seems to slow down. It just keeps running faster and faster. Time is never available to us. The most internal instinct we have is to immediately slow down….and pour ourselves into something we can control. The one thing that won’t bore the other one to pieces. The one thing we enjoy. Cooking.

And just maybe, our noses won’t be the first reminder of a four day old load of wet clothes in the washer that lay completely forgotten. Maybe.

As an organizing fanatic, I decided our fridge needed to be cleaned out if we’re going to make room for new groceries. I wasn’t prepared to be slightly horrified.

I was firstly greeted by an old onion that was sprouting two lengthy green arms almost as if it was reaching towards the door and out to freedom.

I squashed its dreams right away by tossing it promptly into a ready trash can. After meeting a 1/4 can of broth, I made a mental note to ask my parents why they instilled in me the need to save everything I ever touch. What in the world had I ever planned to do with 3 tablespoons of broth anyway?

My bewilderment kept growing when I pulled open the forgotten drawers at the bottom of fridge and discovered that we had grapes….especially considering my recent complaint that we had no fresh fruit in the house.

I spent the next ten minutes wiping out the fridge with bleach in a sort of stunned silence. Thoughts that this may night be the best idea began running through my mind. If our fridge was a perfect stranger, how can plan, purchase, and follow-through new recipe’s?

This is when I surreptitiously mentioned to my husband that we should do a “test” run on a new recipe.We decided to tempt fate. Should we succeed in this easy, peasy recipe we’d go ahead. If it turned out disastrous, we’d organize our take-out menu’s.

And wouldn’t you know it? The first recipe we came in contact with online only had 2 ingredients: Chocolate and Bread.

Chocolate Panini vs. Team Davis was on.

My hubby gladly began dicing semi-sweet chocolate chips while I added butter to the bread and heated up our miniature indoor grill. I did it with a serene smile. This was easy. I love chocolate. Soon it would be mine. We’d make the best Chocolate Panini ever. After I was finished, I checked on his progress to find a large pile of unchopped chocolate chips and a small tiny pile of chocolate shavings.  I couldn’t help but laugh…a little. I asked sweetly if I could help him and he accepted laughing along with me. Until I grabbed the knife and began chopping away on the cutting board in every direction, attacking the pile of chocolate chips with a savage violence. After a couple of minutes of hacking, the pile had been destroyed. I looked up to share our victory together to find that his smile had faded. It was replaced with a look of confusion and slight…concern. I handed the knife back over.

We continued on. Feeling as if this recipe was too easy, we decided to kick it up a knotch and add some diced strawberries and shredded coconut to the mix. We threw the completed sandwiches together with smug looks on our faces and threw them on the grill.

Minutes later the sweet smell of melted chocolate permeated the air and made us drool slightly as we waited. Finally, the soft bread was brown and it was all ready to eat. We sat down in silince and dug into our victory.

And promptly spit it right out. Those little bits of strawberry we added, we had turned into molten lava bent on destroying our appetites.

We had to push it away and make idle conversation while it all cooled down. When it was finally luke warm, we ate.

It was disgusting. The chocolate was so overwhelming I couldn’t eat more than three bites. And I’m a huge fan of chocolate. We’ve been bff’s for years. Begrudgingly, I pushed it away as my hubby gladly scooped it up and finished my half. He, on the other hand, loved it.

I grabbed up a bag of bbq chips to snack on, realizing how this undertaking was probably a bad idea…and getting more and more convinced of it as I munched on my High-Fructose Corn Syrup.

Just in time for my husband to exclaim, “I think this is a good idea.”  Rats.

That’s why this is a two-person team.