back in the kitchen

I haven't cooked very much at all since we moved. (Unless you count lentils and rice, which is my fallback meal -- it's cheap, fast and super-easy to make. And I cook it all in one pot, which makes cleanup simple, too.)

I don't consider myself a very skilled cook. I think that's because growing up, my mom, a woman who never wanted to have a full-time job and preferred to stay home and be a mom, cooked a lot. I wanted a career and no kids, so I thought the key to that would be to avoid the kitchen as much as possible. Which is exactly what I did until my last year of college. (And those early attempts were scary. I consistently overcooked everything because I was afraid of giving myself food poisoning. I had no notion of spices. I also made chicken a lot. So just imagine how great those meals were: bland, overcooked chicken. Tasty.)

I still chop slowly. I have trouble with timing. And I constantly have to ask him if something looks right (he's a much, much better cook than I am).

But I like cooking. I like the prepwork. And I like making things without using a recipe or a book.

Which is what I did Friday night. Finally, a real dinner sans lentils! There was baked English sole seasoned with Meyer lemon, fresh rosemary and cayenne; rotini with mushroom and Asiago cream sauce; and a side of roasted asparagus. All without using a recipe. (Unfortunately, my camera was out of batteries, so I had to take a photo with my Treo. This photo is awful and doesn't do the meal justice. This dinner was good stuff! We didn't even have leftovers -- it was that good, thank you very much.)

Still feeling inspired, I made breakfast this morning -- scrambled eggs with onions, asparagus and Asiago cheese. I also have some hominy and white bean chili going in the slow-cooker right now. (Although that was a near-disaster. The recipe called for a jalapeño, which I seeded and chopped up. Then I proceeded to grind up some cumin seeds, and the grinding made me sneeze, and then I touched my nose, which immediately set my nose on fire, and then I tried to wash my face, which immediately set the rest of my face on fire. For about 10 minutes, I thought I was going to die.)

Taking a break now ... and thinking about what I want to make later on this week.