Culinarily Adventurous

With the recent acquisition of a husband, I am focusing more on a few things. One of those being real meals. Prior to being wed, most of my lunches and dinners consisted of eating out. Such is the life of single-hood. But not only do I have a husband now, I have a cost-conscious husband, so the goal was made that eating out is to be reserved for the weekends or really tiring work-day evenings when I whine enough about not wanting to cook us a meal.

The other day I was making a grocery list and found that I was drawing a blank on what I needed for a typical meal. I had been eating out or making one-person meals for so long that I'd forgotten my standby meals. I get to the store without much of a list figuring I'll just wing it, which I'm actually pretty good at.

The other thing I'm good at when I get to the grocery store is overconfidence. Or rather, unrealistic expectations for what I will actually make for a meal. I read recipes or cooking articles and I get to the grocery store and see asparagus and sun-dried tomatoes and 5,000 spices and baby red potatoes and have instant visions of these spectacular meals and winning greatest domestic goddess awards. It's not that if I bought these materials I would burn the apartment down or kill Jericho, it's that they would rot in my refrigerator before I ever made anything with them. I also get this same ambition in craft stores. I am hoping that Jericho's passion for starting and finishing all of his intended projects will eventually start rubbing off on me.

Thankfully, I was given some great recipe books as wedding presents that I've been able to pull some basic meals from. I don't typically like to use recipes. They're too restrictive. Or maybe I don't trust them. Maybe it's a manifestation of some deeper rooted issue comparable to coloring outside the lines or eating cupcakes like a sandwich.

The most logical progression of this post would next call for a request for recipe ideas or sharing a winning recipe with my reader(s). As this is not that type of blog nor would my reader(s) actually send me a recipe, my conclusion will not be one of recipe swapping. My conclusion is more of happiness that I'm finally able to cook real meals. I greatly enjoy cooking and feel that it is my genes to have a natural gift for it but when you're single, there isn't much incentive to spend a lot of time cooking for one person. But now! I get to cook for the both of us and since Jericho isn't a picky eater in the least, all of my meals have been stellar.