The Joy of a home cooked meal

Do you like to cook? Do you know how to cook? I used to pride myself on my ability to cook ramen noodles or grilled cheese as a teenager. Eventually, I learned how to cook scrambled eggs in the microwave and French toast from scratch.

As I have gotten older and become more self sufficient (as an adult should), I have found joy in preparing meals for my husband and family. I first started to jump into the kitchen more when I was a freshman in college. When my husband and I were dating, we spent a lot of time with some friends, Tina and Colin who were also dating at the time. We often would have dinner together and being in the kitchen with my friend Tina gave me more experience preparing meals. I often would watch Tina cook and then I would try it on my own or file “her process or recipe” into my memory for later. (That’s the same way I learned the French toast method---by watching  mom do it).

I’ve often said that cooking is not hard because if you can read, you can cook! And there is some truth in that because all one has to do it read the recipe! In order to do that well, it is helpful to be familiar with some of the cooking jargon, but most of it is straight forward. Furthermore, I learned a lot of different tips and techniques by watching cooking shows on the Food Network.

I cooked my first Thanksgiving dinner back in 2010 for my husband's family. It turned out great! I was so proud of myself because almost everything was made by me from scratch. My husband now requests that mac n’ cheese recipe at every holiday dinner! Thanks Fanny Farmer.

I am no culinary savant and I have no aspirations to go to cooking school, but I love trying new recipes that a relatively easy and can be done in less than an hour. Pinterest is now supplying me with lots of new things to try! This joy of cooking comes from the fact that at the end of the preparation, we usually get to eat a really good meal and I don’t have to do the dishes :) The simple act of preparing a meal out of love can really be quite significant to yourself and others. So, get your cook on people!