Mad Hungry update.

First let me tell you that I have been cooking and using my kitchen so much in the last three weeks that my family claims not to know me. Then last week my stove died. Given that we fear the refrigerator is also on it's last leg, we spent last weekend picking out a new range, fridge and matching microwave, and pretending the total cost didn't take our breath away. My new kitchen arrives this Friday. (double oven within the normal size range, and french door fridge! Oohlala!)

So, I have now cooked for my family four dinner recipes from the Mad Hungry cookbook.

• French Toast *- inhaled. Check.
• Chicken Parmesan - inhaled. Check.
• Vinegar glossed chicken - held suspect at first, suggestion by my husband to rename it as "Italian Barbecue Chicken" - inhaled. Check.
• Pork chops with apples and onions - inhaled. Check.
• Beef Empanadas** (Including the homemade dough, thank you very much) - suspect. Renamed "Hot Pockets," again, a suggestion by my husband. Still Suspect. Added ketchup - inhaled. Check. 

So that's a pretty good return on investment, I think. I also cleaned out the freezer and pantry and have changed the way I stock those things, and how I think about dinner in general. I've been trying to know ahead of time, like before 5:30pm, what I plan to fix on a particular evening. (I know. Duh.) Given our soccer and cub scouts schedules, Mondays and Wednesday are hard nights to cook a full dinner, so we cook something major on Sunday evening and have leftovers Monday. Then I cook on Tuesday and have leftovers on Wednesday, and cook again Thursday and usually on Friday we order out, or order in. Right now this pattern is working, but we're heading into winter and soccer goes from outdoor practice to indoor, and the schedule may completely change, I have no idea.

I have also, in the last week baked the following:

• A pumpkin pie
• Cupcakes, brownies, and a Legoman mold cake that we shall not discuss.
• Drop biscuits
• Belgian waffles

Okay, actually, on weekends my husband makes the waffles around here. Mama has to sleep sometime.

* Yes I'm aware French Toast is not really dinner. Shut up.

** Note that the only item that isn't white meat is the only item that didn't really fly. I don't know whose children these are? Said the girl with a medium-rare filet in her mouth.