Foodie

You wouldn't know it from reading my blog because I don't often post about food but I actually really love food. I thought I'd give you my take on food, cooking, and vegetables. You can read Melissa's take here.


When I left home for college I could not cook a thing.  Well, I could scramble eggs, even though I didn't eat eggs much, and I could heat spaghetti sauce and boil noodles, which is really helpful when making Top Ramen.  After college, I went to be a nanny in NYC and then in England. Every once in a while it was requested that I make the kids dinner. I worked on making baked chicken, chicken rice-a-roni, broccoli and spaghetti with homemade sauce this time.  It took a while to master the sauce.  


Then I got married. Oh boy was I in for a challenge. Somehow I ended up with a copy of, then a subscription of Cooking Light Magazine. No body told me that you could make the same recipe over again so every night I made something new from that magazine. To this day I still find making the same thing over rather dull and boring, but I have relented due to having three kids at home full time and just being busy.   I have the few normal staples like meat loaf, pizza, spaghetti, baked chicken, teriyaki chicken with rice, tacos, or some other easy form of Mexican food.  However when the mood strikes and I need to meal plan, I will pour over my cookbooks, find the recipes that look delicious and plan for them that week.  I have a love/hate relationship with this technique because while it is my preferred method of cooking, it takes so much time which I don't often have. 


After a few years of using Cooking Light, I started acquiring more cookbooks and my cooking just took off. I tried more and more things which challenged me.  Once I learned some techniques, like what seasonings go with what food, I was able to transfer that knowledge and make my own recipes.  


This week I realized that I have this nifty grill for my gas stove that I haven't used before. So I plopped a few pieces of chicken on it and boy oh boy were we in heaven. It tasted just like summer.  It was so good I did it again tonight.  When I took it off I put this on.

I brushed them with olive oil and sprinkled with kosher salt. I love how each stalk fit right inside the grooves of the pan.  Flip, and repeat.


I boiled some spaghetti and made a white sauce with grated  parmesan cheese.


Layer on plate:   Spaghetti, sauce, chopped grilled chicken and chopped grilled asparagus.  Yum!


This is what was left.

I'm a little pickier with vegetables, but if they are grilled I will most likely eat them. And to Melissa's credit I would not have touched that egg plant with a ten foot pole.

What about you?  Do you like to cook?  Are you a foodie?  Or do you just eat to survive?

Susan