I watch all the cooking shows...Martha Stewart, Emeril, Rachel Ray, & Top Chef(reality TV, yeah right like thats gonna teach me how to cook!)...and drool over the tasty creations they seem to whip out magically without breaking a sweat or dirtying a pot! Like most mothers, I try to come with exotic alternatives to everyday hum-drums like mac and cheese, chicken nuggets and spaghetti. Unfortunately, most of the time as I browse through my most recent Martha Stewart magazine (or even Kraft foods if I'm being totally honest) I am either lacking in ingredients on hand or money to purchase the missing item in question. Cue IMPROVISATION! I am most positive their was probably more then one famous chef that said the true test of a great cook was the ability to improve! Change a recipe into a tasty morsel all your own!! Oh wait...that voice could very well just be my husband praising me for the latest, less then desirable "creation" most recently executed! Yet, most of the time I find myself in this very position. Case in point, I'm making chicken empanada's. It calls for 2 ingredients I don't have. A staple to the dish...salsa...which actually I do have but the kind we normal buy was out of stock during the last Walmart excursion so I opted for a pineapple chipolte kind that had my husbands eyebrows up in disgust before even tasting it. The second missing ingredient is green pepper. Sigh, which we did have, but probably it ended up on one of my many salads taken to work, to avoid the ever boring and pathetic "just lettuce" salad. Let the creative juices start flowing....the scene has definitely been set of course. Charlotte and I both in aprons (hers an old white dish towel) and mine a slightly stained striped eyesore, never the less looking very chic and fashionable in the kitchen, sane pearls on either of us ( sorry Julia). The dough is made with slightly more flour then called for thanks to Charlotte, its just so much fun to play with. Beth is making a masterpiece of her own called "A La Mess" in the highchair with avocado and pancake. Oh why do the healthiest foods have to be the messiest ones! A little bluesy music in the background, our attempt to culture and breed a love for classical music in our children (a little like brainwashing i suppose), drowned out by Charlotte and I arguing over whether goldfish count as a main food group and if she can have them for dinner! "But mom! they are my faborit!" Sigh...go ahead then honey....just don't tell your dad! :) As I sit pondering in front of the pantry with a look on my face like its a work of art from the masterpiece gallery, glass of wine in hand ( I wonder if all the greats cooked with wine..?? surely they do...), I realize that my best choicest for substitutes are a can of cherry pie filling (its red like salsa) and can of garbanzo beans (kind of vegetable). Hmmmm...After much deliberation, a couple big swigs, and multiple interruptions by the ravenous 10 month old in the highchair who yells for every bite, I decided to test the waters with the "new" salsa and add an onion that had me feeling a little like Laura Ingalls as I scrounged it up in the depths of the pantry. Eureka! Not black or yucky I might add either, a pretty good find! Filling made and cooling on the stove, dough rolled out and cut into less then the perfect 7 in rounds the recipe calls for I come up like 4 rounds short even after doubling the recipe for dough!!! How does that always happen? Unfortunately the guilty eater inside me tells me its my scewed portion size that always gets the best of me. Maybe thats why all the greats are still so skinny!! Giada De Laurentiis and her good hair are always staring me down at target, I imagine, mocking my slummed sweatsuit appearance. Empanada's in the oven, we will probably not eat until 10pm, but all in all, as I survey the war zone that has become my kitchen I realize at the end of the day its not always about the food you are cooking in the kitchen. My girls and I just spent 3 hours (yes Martha, I realize it doesn't take that long to make an empanda) of quality time in the kitchen together and I know these days will not last forever. So here's to making it work! Cheers to modifying life and food! Plus...I don't think I'm doing all that bad if I can not burn the food, give my baby a bath in the sink and eat before 10pm! :) I also have the extra perk of having a built in clean up for my floors, our dog Nina. So as I open yet another bottle of wine and turn out the light of the kitchen, here's to another great success, no matter how you look at it! :) and.... Happy Anniversary honey! 5 years and I love you more then the day I met you. Muah!