jaala

I was taught cooking as a child, in that fun, "Here, you stir the bowl, little Sally, while I do this difficult task over here," way. I was also required to bash together some recipes in Family Studies (a.k.a. Home Economics) in grades 7 and 8. That was ages ago, however, and as recently as this time last year, the only cooking I ever did was from a can, the directions on "instant" meals (e.g. tuna helper), pasta, rice and simple egg stuff (scrambled, boiled). I picked up a couple more items (e.g. omelettes) over the summer when I discovered that there's considerably less frozen and quick-fix food available in the UK. I've also muddled my way through really simple grilling of chicken and fish.

This year, at Christmas specifically my family and I both decided it was about time I got down to brass tacks and actually learned how to cook. I already had The Everything Cookbook and couple others but found them pretty uninspiring, so my sister and mum gave me the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book and I got myself Clueless in the Kitchen[1] during a family trip to the bookstore.

I still run into problems pretty frequently, the usual one being that I wait too late to start, so I want food now and don't have the time or energy to really make anything. The other major problem is that it's really difficult to keep a stock of fresh ingredients in usable condition with only one person eating them. So a lot of the time I end up eating sandwiches. But still, with the aid of Clueless... (which is very encouraging) and, to a lesser extent, Better Homes..., I've now made the following from scratch (aside from the occasional substition of frozen vegetables for fresh):

apple sauce
scrambled eggs with spinach (really handy for semi-quick breakfast)
cooked spinach
tofu stir fry
French toast
pancakes
steamed fresh carrots
"fish a la foil" (fish fillet with seasoned butter/lemon sauce, grated carrot and grated cheese)
shepherd's pie

Yes, I know how sad it is that I got a little thrill the first time I realized I was able to make quite edible mashed potatoes from scratch. It's also... ahem... embarrassing that I use a "cookbook for teens"...

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