If you are hoping for small cozy meals by candlelight, please be forewarned that I am not the girl for you. If you want extravagant meals full of exotic and expensive ingredients, nope, I'm not the girl for you.
See, I cook meals that can be served out of a large pot or a casserole dish. Exclusively. Blame it on high school years spent cooking for a large family and a fluctuating and unpredictable number of guests who wandered in our ever-open door. ("Our door always swings in," was the parting statement my dad gave to whomever he met.) Crock-pot meals were cheap, hearty, could be kept warm for hours, and could be frozen or refrigerated easily.
Cooking for one has been a challenge. I use my freezer a lot. But when I go back to my parents' house and cook for the crew there, I feel right at home. This weekend I went back to play mom to the kiddos while my mother was out of town. After dropping off my bags and hugging the children, the first thing I did was scour the kitchen to see what I'd be serving for supper for the next few nights. I didn't want to make a grocery trip, so I was stuck with whatever I could find in the pantry, freezer, and garden. I emerged with brown rice, a bit of chicken, zucchini, carrots, and squash. I can work with this, I thought.
Saute the chicken and carrots in a dab of butter, add the rice and veggies and some water, later add some basil. And viola! Dinner is served.
OK, so maybe this huge pot of food won't win me any award on Top Chef, but the three-year-old did ask for four servings, the sensory kid who can't handle new textures learned that he likes squash, the whole family ate their fill, and I didn't have to make a Walmart run. That's a successful supper in my book.
(The meager leftovers.)
So then, future husband, if you want large, inexpensive meals that serve huge crowds, I'm all in. If you want those gorgeous little Bon Appétit meals, though, I hope you enjoy cooking.
2 comments:
Love it. Yeah, I've certainly had my fun in the "extravagant" cooking scene, being the romantic, "everything must have it's place" type, but I've found a few simple dishes are a great delight. Particularly, the type of dishes that will last many a day. I typically prefer cooking on the weekends and having leftovers the rest of the week. This works especially well during a full semester of classes. It's like someone was sweet enough to have dinner ready for you when you got home, all you had to do was pop it in the microwave and your ready to eat. My preference is often Indian, as I lived in Asia for a time and grew quite fond of it.
-Joshua
Ahhhhh, I always thought those meals were quite wonderful! You should come out and make one for this large crew!
Blessings!
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