Hello and welcome to the blog! We are Cheyenne and Geoff Schultz and are wedding photographers in Charlotte, North Carolina. If you'd like to contact us about our photography, please e-mail me at cheyenne@lovetheschultzes.com with a subject line "The Schultzes". You can also check out our website at http://www.lovetheschultzes.com

Monday, August 11, 2008

What is a double boiler?



In college my mother sent me a book - The Absolute Beginner's Cookbook. It tells you things like how to fry an egg and what it means to "sautee" something. She figured I would need it, as I the only things I knew how to make when I was growing up exclusively included chocolate. I hadn't really even opened it until this past Thursday evening when I was stressed out and clueless trying to figure out what to cook for a little dinner party we had offered to host for a few of our friends the following evening.

Two of our friends - Jon and Lauren - have had us over multiple times for delicious dinners. These two LOVE to cook. I can just picture them each night using oils and spices and trying out new recipes. Meanwhile, Geoff and I throw yet ANOTHER frozen pizza in the oven. Oh so sad.

So anyway, the pressure was on. No pressure from Jon and Lauren - just from my own ridiculousness I was making up in my head that the food must embody EXCELLENCE and PERFECTION. I decided on:

Appetizer - spinach artichoke dip with pita chips
Dinner - a recreation of "Pasta Milano" (my favorite chicken pasta dish from Macaroni Grill)
Dessert - chocolate covered strawberries


The night before our dinner Geoff and I set off to Harris Teeter and found ourselves wandering around the produce section asking each other, "now, what exactly do sun-dried tomatoes look like and where might we find them?" and "so, is this what spinach looks like?". It was sad. BUT - we managed.

On Friday afternoon I decided to start with the strawberries. My recipe called for me to use a double-boiler to heat the chocolate. Um......what? So I did what any oblivious person would do - GOOGLE IT. I found that I could make my own double-boiler and I was QUITE proud as I began melting my chocolate.......



....until this happened. Don't ask me how - I don't know.



Lucky for me, I had bought twice the amount of chocolate needed and was able to try again. And what happened? I was victorious!



Soon following, our dinner guests arrived. I got through the spinach artichoke dip on my own - and I it was a success - but quickly found that I needed help with the rest of it. Jon showed me how to make chicken (and caught me before I burned it) and Lauren saved me from this:



All in all, I felt good about our feast. This weekend was the first we've had that we weren't shooting a wedding or were out of town in months. It was SO NICE to relax.



Lara had made a delicious red velvet cake, but had troubles deciding how to actually get it to our house. When all else fails, use a pot. We were cracking up.



The rest of the night was spent playing games - Apples to Apples and Clue. I'm not the biggest fan of Clue - my attention span reflected it.





Thanks for coming over guys - we had fun!

8 comments:

Lauren Kaczmarski said...

Best Dinner Party Ever! God bless the cooks!

Anonymous said...

the crazy thing about that colonel mustard pic was that it was taken like in the 3rd round and it ended up BEING COLONEL MUSTARD!!! and i think the weapon was the revolver as well.... who knew Cheyenne was so good at foreshadowing!!!!

Amanda Suanne said...

oh my, that sounds like something me and Josh would do,lol! We have not honed our cooking skills yet!! You two are so funny! Great post!

Charlotte Wedding Photographer - The Schultzes said...

lauren- can't wait for the next one!

baby - LOVE YOU!

amanda - yeah....I often wonder if we will EVER get better at cooking - I fear for our children. :)

Anonymous said...

Cheyenne - you & Geoff are so fun!!! Jess is out of town so I am taking her place - love the dog sessions!!! You just get better & better all the time.

Sounds like your group needs to call Martha Watts for a Pampered Chef cooking show!!

Kay C

Charlotte Wedding Planner said...

Favorite line: So this is what spinach looks like?

That is EXACTLY how I feel about the grocery store and cooking in general. Thankfully Philip is much more talented than I am.

I am much more comfortable with a take out menu or baking something! My least favorite? Handling raw meat!

Charlotte Wedding Photographer - The Schultzes said...

Kay - hi there! I think Martha might think I am beyond any help!

alyse - raw meat is THE worst. Last night I was cutting chicken and literally almost became sick...I had to keep talking myself down, "it's fine....it's no big deal...just cut it up and move on with life." lol

Charlotte Wedding Planner said...

HA! Just read your response to my comment. Hilarious. Philip says "I am ridiculous and need to get over my fear."

I also need you to know I have passed this post on to all of my family members and cooking girlfriends. It is so nice to know I am not alone. Sometimes I feel like the only non-Betty-Crocker wife in the world!