Tag: cooking

Just Do It

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Ever have a to do which you’d do anything to avoid doing or procrastinate or make excuses to not do?   No, I’m sure I’m all alone in that wonderful trait.   But just in case…  

For most of my life, I have not cooked.  I didn’t enjoy cooking.  I didn’t like spending time cooking. Why couldn’t fun, delicious food appear from nowhere?   Then I started Hello Fresh and attempted to become a vegan (still a work in progress), so I started cooking.  I’ve learned to make many interesting and fun dishes.   

You know what happens when you cook, when you actually turn the oven on from time to time?   I’m told you’re supposed to clean it periodically.  What?!  Yes, it’s true.   Here is an embarrassing fact.  In all the time we’ve lived here, ahem years, the oven has never been cleaned, not one time. Last time I used it, smoke came out.  It was just like when smoke comes out of the toaster oven when you’ve left crumbs on the bottom, so I knew just what it was.  

But I don’t want to clean the oven!   I don’t wanna.  Do I need Oven Off?   I did think about just getting a new oven for a bit.  The oven is entering it’s golden years. Surely it will need to be replaced soon anyway.  I realize that is ridiculous.  I can’t do that just because I throw out the $35 toaster oven when it gets too dirty.  Oh, the oven is self-cleaning!  Excellent.  Then I read the instructions. The oven will go up to 1000 degrees and it takes hours.  Frankly, that sounds terrifying.  Also, I want to make baked sweet potato fries.  I don’t want to wait.  Ok, Scrub Daddy, you and me… we’re going in.  

To my amazement, the black stuff came right off.   Super easy.  Wo!  Victory!   Sure, I probably need to give it a more substantial cleaning at some point, but things will work out fine for today.   There was no reason to be so intimidated of cleaning the oven.  

Lesson:  sometimes the things you just don’t want to are the exact things that you really need to do.  It’s entirely possible it won’t be as bad as you think and you will feel fantastic when you’re done, not to mention enjoying yummy sweet potato fries! 

Adventures in Cooking: There are 2 more meals

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Lordy… 

I made the one meal and was quite proud of myself, but there are two more in the box.   So here I go:

Check it out:  three pots and/or pans at once.  That is more than I usually use in month.   I made my own pasta sauce (via ingredients portioned out for me and described in a glossy brochure).  I am a chef!  

All the ingredients combined to create something that appears edible.  No one in this household knows how to react.

 

WO…  It has presentation, it has style.  Someone could eat this.  It’s a real meal.  

Hello Fresh has worked some voodoo on me. 

Except that…  these two meals have taken it out of me.   There is one more from the first week, and (gasp!) today is Tuesday, delivery day.. .which means: 

Three more meals.  Three more nights of cooking.  Three more feelings of accomplishment or three more pressure to perform?    We shall see. 

I can’t wait for the autumn risotto, though

Adventures in Cooking

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And I do mean adventures because… I don’t cook.  I mean my oven is turned on on average twice a year.  I could make use of the oven as storage space with no change in lifestyle. 

And yet, I’ve recently decided to make use of Hello Fresh, one of the array of companies that will deliver a box of food to you.  Your selected number of meals, all the ingredients, spices, dressings, portioned out for you.  You add the cooking.  

Right… I add the cooking.   Why am I doing this?  I don’t have an issue buying food.  I excel at buying food.  I own the grocery store.  It’s the cooking part that I’m poor at.  I lack the willingness to slice, dice, prep and wait for food to be ready for dining enjoyment. 

But maybe I should and because I know I work best on a deadline, this seems like a worthy experiment.  Food will arrive, receipes included.  I sort of have to cook them because next week more will arrive.  Surely I will not just throw out whole meals, perfected created and shipped to me in a large box.  We’ll see…. 

Week 1

I receive a UPS notification.  The food is on it’s way!  Yipee. 

I arrive home the next day to find a giant box on my doorstep.  I inhale deeply.  Cooking… will be happening. 

I open the large box.  Three smaller boxes representing three meals are enclosed.   Ok.  This doesn’t look too bad. 

Here we go

Here we go

It’s fall, let’s go with the one with acorn squash.

Nice presentation!  Look how healthy this appears.   I feel good about myself.  

I pull out the lovely, glossy recipe cards with describe how to make the above into something.   I skim through.  I can do this!   I can!

I have to roast an acorn squash?   What does that mean?   Apparently all roasting means is cook it in the oven.   I now understand.  Just like in technology, there are cool words describing common things that people would know but can easily become intimidated due to lack of knowledge.   I’ve got this. 

I cut an acorn squash!  I did!  And it was hard.  I have knives from Ikea, just for show, not ginzu knives.  I drizzled olive oil and spices on the squash.  I don’t drizzle.  I made the little parmesan “cookies”, cut an apple and wa-la:   roasted acorn kale salad: 

I did it!  Me!  The non-cook.   And it’s not only edible, but good.   Wait…what?