cooking lessons

as a single individual, living on my own, I had some trouble transitioning to cooking.

((above: my strange croque-monsieur at class. inside contains, provolone cheese, yellow squash, beef summer sausage, bell pepper, black olives, onions, white wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar, salt, butter, vegetarian stripples))

yes, I cooked as a youth, but for my whole family of four. With meal plans and ideas provided by a happy mother.
when I moved out of Southern Adventist's dorm I found many unseen issues. left overs, rotting vegetables, crappy frozen and packaged meals, frustration, no time to cook, and no creativity.

I end up eating lots and lots of packaged noodle messes and lots of rice, rice, rice.
since then life has been better, don't worry too much. creativity, vegetable usage and diversification experience, and tips from friends have helped me out a lot. my strange croque-monsieur is witness to that. but..

one night I was lying on my couch watching Julie & Julia and I realized the immense and amazing power and ability of food to make a life, your life, so much more rich. sure, it doesn't really matter how you get from point a to point b in life but if the journey is the real adventure and the real destination, then food, good food, must be part of that.

on a quest to find what Julia Child was looking for I downloaded her famous Beef Bourgingnon recipe and it will be my new experiment. when I have a life, when I have time. I'm sure it will be an epic failure judging by sections of the recipe: "Saute lardons in 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a flameproof casserole over moderate heat for 2-3 minutes to brown lightly. Remove to a side dish with a slotted spoon." Never "Sauted lardons" or had a use for a "slotted spoon". keep reading to find out what happens. haha