trying something new

Last week, Jay came home bearing gifts. The first was a new can opener, because our old one ...well, sucks! There's no nice way to put it. It's just awful. I don't know where we got it, or how long we've had it, or why we have complained about it for years but never replaced it. I mean, how much does a can opener cost? Like 8 bucks?

The second was this cookbook from Giada De Laurentiis.

Jay said I'm always saying I could eat Italian food every night (which is true!). I think he's just trying to get me to cook. But regardless of whether it was meant as a sweet gesture or a big hint, I decided to make something out of it for dinner tonight. I decided on Chicken Cacciatore.

So I headed to the grocery store with Emerson, Declan, and Finlay. First stop once inside, Starbucks. Armed with a venti latte (for me), a piece of coffee cake (for Emerson) and a rocky road brownie pop (for Declan), we start shopping. I do not even make it to the produce section (which is the first section, by the way) when Declan had Houdinied (yes, that's a word!) himself out of the cart and is now running through the store grabbing a banana, an apple, a box of Fruity Pebbles, an apple corer, and a bag of rice noodles. Seriously? I can't make this stuff up! I grab him and try to put him back in the cart. He starts hysterically crying/screaming/snotting all over himself. Several grandmas come over and try to help. The first one offers him a grape lollipop which he smacks out of her hand. The next says, "oh, we've all been THERE!" The third offers to block the aisle he is running down with her cart. Finally, I decide that he is not going back in the cart. Well, actually, he kind of decided that. I just went along with it, out of desperation. So we do the rest of our shopping with him walking/running behind the cart with an open box of sour cream & onion bunny crackers. At least he picked something organic, right?

When we get home and I'm unpacking the groceries, I notice that the chicken breasts that I thought I grabbed at the grocery store are actually chicken wings. So instead of the traditional chicken thighs and breasts usually found in Chicken Cacciatore, ours has thighs and wings. Oh well! Here's a look at my chicken browning:


Next I added my chopped onion and red pepper:


Here's my new can opener in action, opening the diced tomatoes:

I put the final product in the crock pot to keep it warm until dinner time. Here's how it was looking:


And here's a look at Declan entertaining Finlay while I was cooking:


Hard to believe this is the same kid from the grocery store!