In With A Bang!

So, it has been eons (well months, actually) since I've posted, but I have returned. I got married, moved, went on an extended honeymoon, started graduate school again, and I have been busting my butt with documentary stuff. BUSEEE!

(My delightful stove with animal inspiration; including Basset Hound statue)

A lot of cooking / baking has happened since my temporary hiatus. There are things I have discovered:

1. How to make porkchops - seriously - finally pork chops that are not dry! The secret: butter. Loads of it and sage.
   
2. Julia Child and the delight that is, guess what: BUTTER!!! Oh sweet heaven I love butter.
   
3. Wine
4. Italian cooking. Seriously - where have you been all my life divine roasted chicken?
   
5. I really really like to bake.
6. I can now make delightful steak
7. Temperature control is your friend.

I have also learned to really enjoy cooking which is something I sort of could not figure out before. Cooking is fun - it is your friend. It is not a competition against yourself and your abilities, it is relaxing. It should fill you with a sense of accomplishment. It should NOT stress you out to the point where you accidentally drop the recipe on the lit burner and start a fire because you are so spastic about browning butter. It should also not fill you with fury if the recipe does not turn out. These are very important lessons. Cupcakes are delightful - creating them should be likewise.

My husband really cannot cook. As I learn more and more about kitchen how to, I learn more and more about kitchen how not from my beloved. The self-proclaimed king of the "One-Pot Wonder Meal" Essentially a stovetop stew of veggies, noodles (boxed mac n cheese, spaghetti, beans and rice, once even ramen noodles) and bacon. Seriously this is his heaven. This is the nightmare to me . Also, he makes the biggest mess imaginable when he cooks with the idiological one pot. It actually takes SEVERAL pots. One pan to boil noodles, one pan to saute veggies, one pan for bacon, a strainer - you get the gist. He calls it one pot, but really he is in denial.


Mary