Monday, March 5, 2012

Cooking for 1: the good, the bad, and the ugly



Like many of you, I absolutely hated the cafeteria food in residence. I eagerly awaited the opportunity to cook for myself after months of bagels and peanut butter (the only things that were edible). In my second year of university, I moved into an off-campus house with 4 amazing girls. Armed with my mother's recipes (e.g., homemade spaghetti sauce, baked lemon chicken), my first attempts at cooking had varied success. Two major issues arose:


First, I failed to realize that the recipes were meant to feed a family of four, not one single lady. I'm sure this situation would scream "leftovers" for most, but I seemed to view the massive amount of food as a challenge. I would often go back for a second (or third) dinner to polish off the massive amount of food. A typical conversation with myself would go something like this: "How much rice should I make?" "1 cup seems reasonable." "Wow that turned out to be a lot!" "Just dump some soy sauce on there and drive that into ya." Needless to say, my freshman 15 occurred at the hands of my own portion-control stupidity.

Second, I did not have enough time to cook. Instead of choosing recipes that could be managed in 15-20 minutes, I simply ate the food when I ran out of time, even if it wasn't quite ready. I don't want to tell you how many chicken divans I ate (to my housemates' horror) that were still half-frozen. Yes, it wasn't pretty.

For the next few weeks, I'll be trying my hand again at cooking for one. I'm excited about all of the foods I can try and the flexibility that comes with tackling a project on my own (plus I'm the only one that has to suffer if things go awry). 

The other night I made an old standard: fresh agnolotti pasta served with pesto and vegetables that were fried in a little olive oil, garlic, and spices. I used some great baby asparagus and crimini mushrooms. The best part? All the food was completely cooked and I had leftovers! I promise!

Do you have any cooking stories? What are your favourite meals to cook for yourself?



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