Adventures of Scott and Carrie in the kitchen.

I love Saturdays.* I mean, I know that everyone loves Saturdays, but I really, REALLY love them. Scott's off work and the weather is perfect and we can run errands and read books and my favorite: cook.

This morning, we made sugar-free vegan pancakes. Later, it's spaghetti squash with tomato sauce, potato and sweet potato tart and salads with balsamic vinegar. And we may or may not have vegan pumpkin pie tonight.

I know. You wish you lived here.

Cooking in the kitchen together is a tradition that goes way back with Scott and I. In fact, the very first day we hung out together, we made Mexican food.

That's Scott on the left in my apron. That's me in chemistry goggles because I was cutting onions, and wearing goggles keeps the fumes from burning my eyes out. It's amazing that he still decided to keep hanging out with me after that.

When we were dating, he made me homemade shrimp alfredo for my birthday. For his, I packed a breakfast of muffins and fruit to eat at the top of small, local mountain at sunrise. Our best date was wrapped in a sleeping bag at the sand dunes waiting for our tin foil dinners of rosemary chicken and potatoes to be done.

We fell in love over parmesean chicken in the early fall. He had been gone for two weeks and when he came back, I made his favorite dinner and after we were full and in one another's arms- we could honestly say "I love you" for the first time.

The night he proposed, he made me pot stickers and fried rice that convinced me he could be the one I would spend forever with.

Our adventures in the kitchen moved on to our tiny first apartment where I was burned by boiling oil while making blue-cheese corn dogs. I later had to perform an improv show with a giant ice pack taped to my hand because oil burns seep deep into you skin. Scott took good care of me, and now takes care to fry everything that needs frying. I'm literally scarred from that.

Together, we challenged ourselves to only eat 15 grams of sugar and six servings of carbs per day and lost all the weight we had gained in our first year of marriage. But it was sad.

Because there wasn't much cooking.

On St. Patrick's day we had corn-beef with potatoes and bright green cupcakes while listening to Flogging Molly.

We've grown a garden (as small as it was) and felt the pride that came from eating your own food. We still have the herbs, they've just been moved inside to our kitchen window.

Lately, we've continued our adventures. Remember when I put 1/4 cup of cayenne powder in some BBQ sauce because I thought it was the same as chili powder? He ate the BBQ chicken anyway. And before I started my vegan diet, we made authentic Indian curry complete with Naan. Just last week we baked 11 loaves of zucchini bread together so that we could rid of all our zucchini from the farmer's market.

The farmer's market: where we spend every Friday date night.

And then there's this vegan adventure. So far my favorite thing is that there is so much cooking. Scott and I can cuddle in front of the stove while we wait for water to boil. We can experience different countries on our low grocery-budget. We can dance in the kitchen while we wash the dishes.

Scott and I are not "foodies." We don't come up with our own crazy recipes or insult food that isn't perfect. Although we love the food, it's not about the food.

It's about the company.

*I know I said everyone loves Saturdays, but Liz, I bet you hate Saturdays. Because you hate autumn. So you probably hate Saturdays and ice cream and cuddling too. ;)