If I Can Do It...

This post really was inevitable. I made the big deal about how I couldn’t cook. I think I even mentioned that I really didn’t care to learn how to cook. I’ve gone damned near 30 years now and people have been kind enough to cook for me. When they haven’t, I’ve let the miracle of processed food do the work (see my ever expanding stomach for proof).

So, I bothered to write about how I can’t cook and how my little shopping trip for the boyfriend stressed me out. I really thought that’d be about the end of it. Instead, I got lots of encouragement (which was appreciated) and aversion therapy.

You see, the boyfriend is kind of fantastic. He’s been/is a source of face your shit, deal with it and come out the other side a better person. When I’m inclined to be stagnant, he’s a motivator and just generally makes me a better person. So, he starts to give me a little prodding with comments like “Ya know, you ARE off today and I’m at work.” And so, at 11:33am today, I decided that I was going to make dinner.

This is not a decision that I came to lightly.

I then sat around wondering what in the world I would make. I thought about lots of things that were basically frozen food. I thought about going to Fresh Market and getting one of their prepared things that you just heat. I also thought about doing the Bisquick “Oven Fried Chicken”. However, none of those felt “special”. After running out to do a couple of other errands, I came back and continued to stress out and peruse the internet.

It was at 3:42pm (note the time I spent stressing about this) that I decided to leave it all up to fate. I decided that I was going to turn on the Rachel Ray talk show and whatever she was making, that’s what I was going to make for dinner. I figured that her recipes were for the causal home cook and if she could do it, then by God I could too.

It turns out that Rachel was featuring her best of 2009 recipes and was doing a spin on one of them for 2010 (always up with the times, that Rachel). And so, she was making a Spinach, Artichoke and Chicken Penne dish. I watched her make it and for the first time in my life had an “I can do that” moment while watching food television. I promptly found the recipe, printed and set off to DiscoKroger.

I will spare you lots of detail, but here’s what I’ve learned: Rachel does NOT make stuff in 30 minutes. If I had a whole team of people to chop, pour, stir and generally keep an eye on stuff, then great. I could make Thanksgiving dinner in 30 minutes. Her pasta dish, not so much. Those spices that she calls for just a pinch of...yeah...those are expensive. I spent $20 today on bay leaves and fresh nutmeg and I’m pretty sure that they didn’t add anything to the dish.

However, on a non-cynical note: I cooked. I for real, took some stuff and made it into food. How frickin’ cool is that? I didn’t know it, but the boyfriend tells me that I poached, made a roux, turned that into a beschamel and then combined all of that into a pretty tasty dish. So hot damn!!!

I recognize that none of this is earth shattering or “gourmet”. However, it’s a decent first step for a total novice. I will also say, it was kinda tasty. The best part? While we were cleaning up, the boyfriend said “No one’s ever cooked for me before”. That moment when I melted just a little, made the 5 hours of stress totally worth it.