Let Them Eat Cake.

Or, rather, let me eat cake. And scones, and roast chicken and vegetables, and zucchini bread, and soups with fluffy rice. No, not all at once, although to be completely honest with you I'm not entirely opposed to the idea. Here's the deal, guys. I love to cook. In fact, I adore it. Partially because I adore food, and if you want food, you have to cook it. I realize there are many ways around actually cooking (boil in a bag, anyone? For the record, I've never done that), but generally speaking there is some effort required if you want to eat. And I have so much extra time to cook, it's beyond ridiculous that I don't do it more! It's shameful, actually. I have a crazy amount of access to local produce, I live a short walk from Trader Joes where I shop once a week--usually on Mondays, if you were at all curious--and I'm not too shabby a cook, either. Granted, my kitchen is tiny, I have three roommates who also frequent the kitchen, and our selection of appliances and tools is random at best. But still, this is to be expected for a college student's kitchen and I can't in good conscience use those paltry excuses. So here's what I'm thinking. I want to try and make one new recipe every week. It can be breakfast, lunch, dinner, or dessert, whatever. As long as I'm doing it. Some of my favorite blogs to look at are food blogs and maybe instead of sitting on the couch reading about other people cooking, I should get off my tuchus and join them. My only hangup with this is I'd be cooking for one, and that's a tough job. You end up with leftovers and expiring ingredients that you may not use again before they go bad and I don't like being that wasteful. For instance, I was just thinking that my first recipe could be a roasted beet salad like the one I ate at Jovino and few weeks back. But then I realized that I wouldn't need an entire package of goat or feta cheese for just one salad. Nor would I need an entire bag of spinach. Could I make other meals throughout the week that include those extra ingredients? Of course. But you see my point, I'm sure. Perhaps my goal will be to find recipes that don't make large servings. Or perhaps my goal will be to find a recipe whose ingredients carry over into two or three other new recipes for that week, or at least other delicious meals. I eat a lot of brown rice and black beans, and while I still find it delicious, I need to expand my food horizons a bit. Anyway, this is me thinking out loud...writing out loud?...and I probably shouldn't do that since if I flake you'll all know, as opposed to flaking in private when there's only me to judge myself. But again, this blog is my personal journey and giving you all front row seats to my flakeage is as real as it gets! Anything less would be a lie.

Anyhow, I'm currently exploring the world of cooking blogs. It is as vast and endless as the world of style blogs so it can be overwhelming. But food is so much less intimidating than style. Style can say "I challenge you to be this awesome", while food says "here, nurture your intimidation with the comfort of my bounty". "Um, Lauren, I'm pretty sure that's called stress eating...". Well, you can shut your mouth. Food is kind and forgiving. It fits everybody. I was about to say "it isn't seasonal", but it is. Whatever, you get my point. I'm about to kick my kitchen's ass with this new project. I'll show it things it's never even heard of. Hell, I'll take it's V card. And it's innocence. If violent cooking tickles your fancy, be sure to check out the "Make Dinner Your Bitch" segments over here. You should know that this is my cousin's blog. At first I wasn't going to tell you that so that you didn't all think I was shamelessly promoting a family member. It's not like that. It's really more like I'm shamelessly name dropping. Or I guess in this case blog dropping. I'm hoping that some of her awesomeness will rub off on me via the internets, and awesome by association is my only hope. I used to read her blog while in class but as it usually has me in tears from laughing so hard, that stopped being an option.

Anyway, it's 12:40, I'm exhausted, and my bed is currently piled high with tons of noisy items that sound like a marching band when they're looked at sideways. Roomie is already asleep. This means that in my current sleep-deprived state, I must try to silently navigate the mine field that is my half of the room in hopes that I do not wake her from her slumber. At that, I leave you.

-LG