Try something new

Like most college-aged people, I never cooked while I was in school. Between barely having time to sleep at night and sharing a very small kitchen with the other 60 people on my dormitory floor, cooking was nearly impossible unless it was in a microwave. I should admit that I sort of just assumed I would be bad at cooking. All throughout my childhood and high school years, my mom always cooked. Even during the vacations and summers home from college, I never tried cooking cause I assumed the worst.

I'm proud to say this is no longer the case. One positive thing that came out of graduating into a recession was the time I had to learn new things, like cooking. I'm by no means a master chef, but I can follow a recipe and even put together some of my own creations. Thank you to Food Network for inspiring even the most kitchen illiterate to pick up a spatula!

Some great resources for aspiring cooks (and herb gardeners):

• The Food Network - both on TV and online - I like watching the shows cause I can see how things are actually supposed to be done, but the website has millions of recipes and some video, too. The website also has great suggestions for side dishes and desserts right along side main dish recipes.
  
• yumsugar - A really great blog with everything cooking-related you could ever imagine. I set up an RSS feed to my Google Reader so I get updates all the time on new posts, which include recipes for in-season foods, party planning menus, kitchenware, etc.
• Your Backyard Herb Garden - I just got this book at the beginning of last summer and have used it extensively since. I decided to plant my own herb garden with basil, oregano, thyme, and rosemary, and this book takes you through everything from when to plant, how to use the herbs, and how and when to dry herbs and get them ready for hibernation over the winter. Truly a must if you are going to grow herbs.

So while I'm not ready to enter a Food Network Challenge or compete with Iron Chefs, I have become a good enough cook to serve food to friends and family (much to their delight I hope) and to share some of that knowledge here. All it really took was some inspiration (you can only watch so much good food being prepared before you have to have it on the plate in front of you) and a few simple guiding tools. In fact, I'd venture to suggest that anything can be done with a few simple guiding tools (maybe not brain surgery, think more of the everyday kinds of activities) and I hope I can share with you some more things I never thought I do in the near future.

For now, I leave you with an excellent recipe for the cold days ahead: Baked Potato Soup. This one's from yumsugar and I found it especially helpful to have step by step photographs along with the recipe. I made this soup yesterday and it was delicious! Also good as leftovers today. One thing to note: I added fresh basil from my garden both chopped up in the soup itself and as garnish on top. Yummy!