Transitions and....food?

The past few weeks of my life can be easily summed up by one word. Transition. I finally finished my MLIS and now I'm fully ready to start an exciting career of librarianship. The economy, however, is not exactly giving me the warm welcome I feel deserving of an educated individual, such as myself.

This past week I have FINALLY been blessed with a work opportunity. You may be saying to yourself, "but Mark, you have only been unemployed for like--two weeks." Well let me tell you, if you have had the pleasure (curse?) of knowing a man in the Morton family for any significant amount of time, you know that working is very important to us. I have been employed in some form or another since 5th grade (shout out to all former Observer carriers out there!). Needless to say, the past few weeks have been odd for me.

So I decided to make the most of my free time. I read a few books, played a few video games ( I resurrected Guitar Hero), spent a lot of time on the Internet, started a blog (you're welcome!), and decided to attempt being competent at cooking.

Now there are a few things you should know about my cooking:

1. It is not something I'm a "natural" at doing
2. I have been told that I can cook a Red Baron Pizza to perfection 
3. I don't want to get too good at it

Let me explain. Since cooking does not come easy to me, it is not a chore I particularly enjoy performing. If I get to be good at it, I have a feeling it will become one of my daily duties.  So the goal is to be able to make some guy-proof meals that make our tummies happy and are slightly impressive (only slightly).

So for your reading pleasure (or horror), I present one of my dinner adventures.

A few Sundays ago Marissa and I made some white chili. This resulted in leftover chopped tomatoes, chopped green onions, and half an onion. After some Internet searching I decided on my guy-proof dinner. Sloppy Joes (fairly hard to mess up) and a garlic asparagus side (easier than it sounds). I dub this meal Slopsparagus! Too gross? Okay, the name needs some work...

This is a perfect guy-proof meal. I just grabbed a can of Manwich and "doctored it up," as my mom would say.

1. Browned the meat
2. Added some of the left over onion (poorly chopped) for some crunch and extra flavor
3. Poured in the Manwich sauce
4. Added some Louisiana Hot Sauce for a little kick
5. Served it over Meijer hamburger buns 

Bam! Easy Sloppy Joes. Next the Asparagus.

1. I (poorly) chopped up the onion and garlic--the tomatoes and green onion were already chopped (nicely because Marissa did it).
2. Sauteed it in a skillet with olive oil
3. Added the asparagus
4. Put in a little salt and pepper
5. Cooked it for about 5 min.
6. Added green onion and tomatoes 
7. Cooked it for an additional 5 min or until asparagus is cooked. (Add additional olive oil, as needed)

And now you look fancy because you added a side like garlic asparagus to a guy meal! Best of all Marissa liked it! I also discovered that zucchini can work in place of asparagus (also impressive, right?).

Hope I didn't scare you away with my first blog, which was much longer than I intended. I will continue writing random musings as inspiration strikes.

Cheers!