cooking in the kitchen

i have not ever been a good cook.

growing up in a family of eight

our food was about quantity and time

zapping anything as fast as possible to get it on the table and into the mouths of ye hungry babes

i'm missing a link between

cooking and taste

sure, i can follow directions.

i can make up a recipe

and make something chewable happen

but i'm just as likely to

undercook

overcook

or just basically miss being able to tell when something is not right and what would make that something taste better.

but i'm here to change that.

i'm a big believer in New Years.'

Yes, there does not have to be a set day or time to turn over a new leaf

and if you were going to do it,

then doing it NOW as opposed to waiting a whole year for a specific day

is probably the best way of going about it.

but if the opportunity presents itself

as it does every January 31st

and if he opportunity presents itself

in the form of a giant, beautiful holiday

that one likes to get dressed up on and celebrate

then why not carpe the hell out of this diem

and go for it?

right?

so i've been thinking about my New Years' Resolutions

which is turning into more of a New Years' To-Do List

(which i love. the more tangible my resolutions, the better.)

and one of them is to learn to make all my favorite foods.

this will keep me in the kitchen.

aaron wants to help me with this

which basically means that he eats everything that i cook :)

and i'm okay with that.

because i do not like wasting food

and i like being a capable, young adult teaching myself how to do the things i've always wanted to be a person who does.

so we began our foray into New Years' Resolutions

last Sunday

when i wanted to make mac n cheese

and aaron had a "best mac n cheese EVAR" recipe magnet-ed to his refrigidaire. :)

it went something like this:

cook some noodles.

boil some milk, flour, and butter together.

let it thicken enough to coat a spoon

add cheddar cheese, gruyere cheese

salt, pepper, nutmeg

and then noodles.

stir it up.

stop here, if you're happy with normal mac n cheese gone awesome

or

if you'd like to continue

toss it in a baking pan

and then cover it with a coating of

breadcrums

bacon

parmesan

and 2tbs butter

and bake it up!

yum yum yum

yumyumyumyumyum

we ended up also making green beans

which i completely love

and wanted to use so that i could get in the habit of making well-balanced meals

and then took the entire shindig over to aaron's neighbors

where they made filet mignon and biscuits

and it was all very delicious.

ON ANOTHER NOTE

i recently ended my vegetarianism

and had about a month and half's worth of meat in my diet

and that too, again, is coming to an end.

i like being vegetarian

and i'm going back to it.

woohoo!

ON A SECOND NOTE

aaron and i end up being very good cooks in the kitchen

for the time being

because i know nothing about cooking

and he knows more stuff than i do about cooking

so we both read the recipe

and end up tag-teaming it till it gets in the oven.

also, i'm a stickler for dishes

so i wash the heck out of those

and we wind up

completing our task

with a pan of mac in the oven

and a strainer full

of happy, clean dishes.

huzzah!