Sunday, July 13, 2008

Summer 2008 - Cooking

Today marks the 2nd consecutive anniversary of my "Learn to Cook" program. A mostly autodicatic curriculum, the program has consisted thus-far of two dishes. The strategy is simple; Sunday evening is the designated cooking night, and the meal will be used throughout the week for lunch and dinner, and heartily enjoyed until my budding tastes can no longer bear the sight of that food. Well, that's partially it. More reasonably, the idea is simply to cook food that will last me throughout the week. The first week was a pasta dish with shrimp, found here. It turned out surperb, though I'd like to have coated it with some parmeson cheese. The pasta was accompanied by french bread and a white wine - Francis Coppola Chardonnay to be precise. The meal was amazing and the pasta (which included a lb of shrimp) lasted an entire week - yes, nearly 7 meals, with some to spare. The downside was the cost, which amounted to nearly $35, wine excluded.

Today my wallet took another beating; this time for a shot at The Pioneer Woman's famed Lasagna. The trip to Publix set me back nearly $50, but keep in mind that I'm living in a new place this summer and as far and ingredients go I was starting from scratch. This included $6 for olive oil, $7 worth of ground chuck and sausage, $10 worth of cheese, and who knows what else. Yet, 3 hours and one meal later, I can testify that the expenses were gratified by the first bite. Mmmm! Delicious. The lasagna was better than I knew constructively possible - and I cooked it!!!

Tomorrow I may just take my lunch to work, again. And the next day? Why not!

Speaking of tomorrow - I'm scheming to make french toast, but this time with a jam/cream cheese filling. It's a strategy revealed over the weekend on a GPB cooking show. We'll see how it goes....

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