Cooking Like a Grown Up
Ladylark came down this weekend to teach me how to treat food as something more than "that thing I ought to have". From Friday afternoon to Monday morning I ate nothing but properly cooked food. Only the bread was bought in.
Check it out:
Friday evening
Mallanzane with spicy potato/sweet potato wedges
Saturday
Breakfast of fresh apple and blueberry pastries
Lunch of courgette, sweet potato and brie soup with walnut granary bread
Dinner of rice and mixed fried veg
Sunday
Breakfast of fresh red berry muffins
Lunch of avocado, haloumi and olive salad with walnut granary bread
Dinner of cheesey pasta bake (I even made the sauce!) and roast mixed veg, followed by a apple and red berry crumble (all eaten whilst watching the repeat of the Christmas Invasion)
Monday morning
Some more of the red berry muffins because I put them in a tin.
Tonight I had rice and left-over mallanzene.
What really struck me was how I have the skills, but not the right mental processes to look at the contents of the kitchen and produce meals. So we focussed on showing me how to map out different ways of making meals using whatever is available ("take some vegetables out of the box" / "which ones?" / ladylark rolls eyes). Also, stuff which can be stored in the fridge to make life simple. A deep shock came when I flicked through some of her cookbooks: I had no idea that Nigella Lawson is, in fact, the sort of cook I should be reading.
So, in order to keep going, I now have a large notebook for writing out recipes and adding notes as I mess about with them (for example, the sweet potato got added to the soup because we both like it). Also, to show that I keep up the progress, I'm keeping a food diary. Not in a calorie way, but in a how often I cook stuff compared to the evils of the takeaway and sod-it-pasta'n'pesto food. Officially, I is now a Growed Up.
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Posted @
9:14 pm
on
Monday, April 10, 2006
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