Home Cooked Doesn't Come in a Box

I so need a mom visit. Sometimes I wonder if I am forgetting all the lessons taught to me. McDonald's used to be a rare treat and Red Lobster was only for special occasions but lately both of those are weekly dinner options. Seems like with all the running around that I do, I have the hardest time putting a home cooked meal on the table, or at least that is what I tell myself. On my last grocery trip I thought I would pick up pot pies for a busy night's dinner. They are kind of considered homemade, don't you think? I mean they have a chicken, vegetables, and gravy in a flaky crust and are usually cooked in the oven. Isn't that close to homemade?

Anyway, I think I have forgotten all my cooking skills or have just gotten lazy. Really, how do you mess up pasta three times in a row and burn pot pies. Yes, a frozen pot pie was my lunch of choice yesterday and I somehow messed that up too. Of course I waited until I was starving to cook it so instead of thirty minutes in the oven I opted for the microwave version. I popped it in while I finished up some chores. At first the house smelled of warm golden crust and chicken gravy, and it made my stomach growl with hunger. Then suddenly a smoky smell took over. As I walked towards the kitchen I saw smoke coming out of every angle of the microwave. The kitchen was a huge cloud of smoke while small flames in the microwave engulfed my lunch. I quickly opened as many windows as fast as I could and then opened the microwave to remove the sad little pie. Yep, definitely not going to eat that. My pot pie had a small hole where smoke was still escaping from under the blackened crust. I put the pot pie outside to keep the smoke out, and just laughed.

I'll take this as my lesson learned :)