needles & vectors

I sort of forgot that learning to cook/cooking are actually on my 101 list. Then again, much of what I do other than study is on the list. When I was making the list, I decided I really wanted to learn how to cook. Not because I feel obligated as a wife, I assure you. No matter how many times those of older generations have told me, “You’ll learn to cook and take over the preparation of meals later (AKA when we have kids),” I’ve ignored them. I don’t think I should learn to cook just because I’m now married or because I’m female. I could never learn and that’d be perfectly fine with Matt. He loves to cook and is actually good at it.

So why even bother in the first place? As a point of personal pride. I dont’ want to be another person that says things along the lines of, “You’ll know the food is ready when the fire alarm goes off.” or “The best thing I make is reservations.” Even if I only cook a few times a month, that’s a few times Matt doesn’t have to worry about it. I could actually have friends over and cook something for them myself instead of asking Matt to do so.

Last week I grabbed three of our most basic cookbooks and started reading. I already know a lot about the ingredients, tools, and methods. But knowing about them is far different than actually using them. I had no clue that our broiler had three different shelf heights until I tried to make burgers. I was surprised how much salt you have to put in things to actually make them taste right.

My cooking lessons will all be on Matt’s blog though every now and then I’ll probably post links over to that page. Right now he’s taking all of the photos but I hope to take that over soon. I’ll need to get past the stage where cooking more than one item at a time is overwhelming before I can think of adding a camera to the mix.

What have I made so far? Cheeseburgers (Thurs night) and Parmesan-Dijon Chicken with Twice-Baked Potatoes (last night) – three items down, 22 to go!