My induction into the world of cooking was a trial by fire. Literally. For the first month I cooked, I didnt realize why everything came out so dry/charred/ruined until a kind soul gave me the sage advice - " You dont have to cook everything on high".
Good to know.
When I moved in with my then-boyfriend (now fiancee) Adam alomst 6 years ago. I did not know how to cook. I was happy with Adam' s comfortable repertoire of lemon chicken, honey mustard pork chops, pasta and shepard's pie. It was great! Come home from work, kick off my shoes, my man makes me dinner. Easy peasy. Life was grand. I hid behind the "I dont know how to cook" excuse for a long time. And honestly felt kind of cool about it. Like look at me, a woman who hates to cook. Ain't I a novelty?
Then soon after we moved in together, I was out of work and bored and coincidentally my mother gave me two cookbooks: The Idiot's Guide to Cooking, and The Good Housekeeping Cookbok. With nothing better to do between job interviews I figured, what the hell and dove into these books headfirst, learning, reading, getting inspired. And it didnt make sense for Adam to come home from work and be making us dinner when I was home all day anyway. I put my theory to the test, as it were, on our one year anniversary (November 8, 2004). I made what I thought was a delicious homage to French country cooking - Roasted Rosemary Chicken , Potatoes with Herbs de Provence and canned corn. Let me tel you, the canned corn was the best part of the meal. Having not learned the whole "You dont have to cook everything on high" wisdom yet, I burned the bejeezus out of the bird, the rosemary formed a fragrant charcoal-y crush and the potatoes were dried out nuggets of their former self. But the canned corn, as I said, was inspired (a dollop of butter will do you). In any case Adam managed to eat it and not run for the hills and I became determined to be better. So I sought out new recipes every day, went to the supermarket for the ingredients and presented the results to Adam each night. It did take me a while to get the hang of it, several unplugged smoke detectors and the occasional use of the fire extinguisher below the sheet. But after a month's time I had a new job, and a new much loved hobby. Cooking! That which made me feel useful when I was unemployed became a passion and has been ever since!
I am not perfect by any means (ask Adam about my recent attempts at Tomato Peanut Soup? Or about how Crab Cakes are my waterloo)! But it is something I do almost every night and something I look forward to every day. I seek out new recipes, I come up with my own, I borrow from the past and look to the future. And I catalouge it all in this blog.
These days I live with Adam, the dog Bodhi, and my brother Peter. Living with three guys allows me to cook basically anything I want and at least one person (or dog) will eat it which has definitely expanded my repertoire. I look forward to sharing my cooking experiences with you and hearing from you about yours.
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