Well, I do have a problem with all our experimental cooking: leftovers, or lack thereof.

Our corned beef and cabbage leftovers from Saturday night.

When Jamey and I cook, we throw all our efforts into the pot. We buy fresh ingredients, use our finest tools, and listen to classical music while we sip wine aged 40 years (stretching, but you get my drift). If this blog didn’t give it away, cooking, for us, has become a passionate recreation in our home.

As much as we do try, we don’t always have a recipe up our sleeves or a full week of meals planned. Luckily, last night we had that corned beef and cabbage to dig into at the end of the day. (We also threw in some carrots and potatoes, which gave the meal a more rounded veggie variety. I can’t tell if that picture above looks delicious or if it looks like dog food, but I ate it anyway.) Still, there’s nothing like the tragedy of coming home to a scrounge-worthy pantry or fridge, when a trip to the store desperately needs to be made and neither one of us wants to go. Takeout Tuesdays typically save us there, but even that has become more of a rarity in our home as we have worked to stay within a weekly meal budget.

Still, I’ve become flat-out spoiled, and I blame Jamey. It’s his fault I like cooking so much, and even more so because he has encouraged me to cook good food. (I can’t even eat out without comparing our cooking skills to a restaurant’s valiant attempt.) We’re lucky to be curious cooks together, amateur in our earlier attempts but growing more gourmand with each passing recipe.

And you’re in luck! Last night we threw another chuck roast into the sous vide. That crazy thing has given us so much random traffic, so it’s about time we pay back the favor and give you a more in-depth scoop on how we capture the essence of this piece of meat. It’s currently simmering in the sous vide and will until Thursday evening, when we dive into it and whip up a few fancy sides. (Anything in particular we should try or you’d like to see?) Jamey’s research showed him that chuck in the sous vide is even better on a 48-hour stint, so that’s what we’re going for with this batch.

We’ll probably do some serious meal planning this weekend on our drive to and from Georgia, so look forward to that. I’m thinking we need to do a few fish dishes…any suggestions?