About once a week, I make an effort to try a new recipe. Usually it’s a new dinner recipe, but recently I have branched out into baking new things too. I feel I’ve come a long way in my culinary adventure.
When I was in high school, I consistently ate peanut butter. I promise there were some days where I’d have peanut butter toast for breakfast, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch. And then after soccer practice, I’d come home and eat a peanut butter and jelly for dinner. No joke. Those were the days. I hated dinner back in the day. Looking back at that time, I think I can take half of the blame, but the other half I have to place on my mom. (Sorry Mom, but it’s true). At the time, I didn’t eat beef or pork and I wasn’t fond of seafood so that basically left my mom with chicken (my fault). This meant that most of the time baked chicken was for dinner – who wouldn’t get tired of plain baked chicken night after night (apparently my dad).
Thankfully for my health and that of my husband’s I have braved the kitchen and learned: 1. there are many different ways to cook chicken 2. it’s perfectly acceptable to actually season/dress/pair the chicken with something, and 3. to eat all sorts of different meats and veggies.
When I first started cooking for myself, I called my mom for all sorts of different questions. What temperature do I cook the chicken, how many ounces are in a cup, can you send me the recipe for enchiladas, summer pizza, and your famous bean dip? But not long after I was ready to progress onto something more than just baked chicken. Luckily I came across Rachael Ray’s 30 Minute Meals. This was the perfect show for me. I could watch it and afterwards I felt like I could make the dish too. The first of her recipes that I tried was a bean salad. I think I jotted some things down, but since she for the most part seems to wing it, I knew that I could probably wing it too (with guidance of course). Not long after that I bought one of her cookbooks. I started trying new recipes regularly – usually the chicken dishes only even though at this point I was eating beef and more willing to try seafood. After making a few of her dishes, I got the hang of how to cook chicken on the stove top and in general started to get a feel for cooking. After I started to get the hang of it, it was easier to branch out and try all sorts of new recipes.
At first I was still pretty picky about which new recipes to try. I would avoid ones with ingredients that I didn’t know what it was or didn’t think I liked or with a lot of herbs (ok I still do this one a bit). Now I’m much better about throwing caution to wind and trying something even if I’m not sure it sounds delicious. Um, pumpkin and black beans just sounds weird to me, but let’s try it anyway. What a delicious surprise that turned out to be! A lot of times now when I’m trying to find new recipes I think about a specific ingredient that I either need to use up or that I think we should be eating more of (like pumpkin). This works out pretty well because I end up finding recipes that I wouldn’t come across otherwise.
So here I am being a whiz in the kitchen, not afraid to work without a recipe, willing to wing it and try new flavors, and enjoying dinner a lot more than I ever have in the past! And no, I NEVER serve a plain baked chicken for dinner.
Here’s a little bit more about me (For a lot more random facts check out my first post).
Favorite dish to make: Chicken and Black Beans, not really sure why though
Favorite dish to eat: Fondue – it’s so fun, hello cheese! (I’ve only made this once)
My go-to dinner: White Pizza, quick and easy or Mediterranean Chicken because I usually have the ingredients on hand
Current favorite new dish: ABC Monte Cristo - it’s quick and delicious and when we have it for dinner, Brian always leans back and sighs in happiness. Ah love!
Best kitchen accomplishment to date: cooking breaded chicken and not burning it
Ingredient that I’m intrigued but scared of: arugula - it’s popped up in some recipes that I would like to try, but I can’t figure out which leaf this at the store and I have no idea what it tastes like
Least favorite ingredient: mushrooms, um yuck
What you can find me doing when I’m not cooking: walking the dogs, reading, crossword puzzles
