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I decided yesterday afternoon that I wanted to make a good, old fashioned Sunday dinner.

I was inspired by a new website that I discovered, ThePioneerWoman.com.  I think why I find her website so interesting is that she is living a totally different life than I am.

I live in a big city.  She lives on a working cattle ranch.

I have two kids.  She has four.

My kids go to public school and private pre-school.  Her kids are homeschooled on the ranch.

Etc., etc.

I've discovered that the things (i.e., websites, blogs, television shows) that I am drawn to are about something totally different than my personal reality.  When I actually have a moment to sit and watch a show or read a blog, I like to escape and enter a different world than my own.  And Pioneer Woman is living a life that I'm actually a little jealous of.

I'm not saying that I want to live on a ranch and be married to a cowboy (that she calls "Marlboro Man").  I love my life and honestly wouldn't change a thing.  What I'm jealous of is the simplistic life she seems to have. 

Not that living on a ranch with four kids is simple.  Quite the opposite.  I'm sure her life is physically much harder than mine.  But I see all of her wonderful recipes and look at all of the beautiful pictures that she takes of her children and I can't help but be inspired. 

That's why I was inspired to make chocolate sheet cake in the middle of the afternoon yesterday.  I imagined Pioneer Woman in her kitchen, working on a traditional Sunday dinner like a pot roast or something equally hardy, and I wanted to do the same.  So, after a quick trip to the grocery store I was ready to make my feast.

My menu wasn't for the health conscience or the weight watcher.  This was to be a Sunday dinner to fill your belly and your heart with goodness.  I knew the Golfer would appreciate it.  After traveling for work for the last week and a half, a home cooked meal was exactly what he wanted--didn't matter what it consisted of.

After making the sheet cake that Pioneer Woman says is "the best chocolate sheet cake ever", I started roasting the garlic for the garlic mashed potatoes, and finished my time in the kitchen grilling a couple of tri-tip steaks.  Everything turned out delicious and neither the Golfer nor I seemed to care how many calories that we had just consumed.  The Golfer, who is not a big sweets guy to begin with, ate two large pieces of sheet cake--that's how good it was.

We finished the evening by watching our favorite new mini-series, John Adams, on HBO.  We patted our full bellies and moaned and groaned about gathering enough energy to make it upstairs for bed. 

I can't wait to do it again.

It will be a couple of more Sundays before I make a big Sunday dinner again.  Next week I'll be out of town with the Golfer for a quick get-out-of-town-before-the-big-move trip, and the next week we will be unpacking boxes.  But I plan to make more Sunday dinners in the future.