And so it begins...

It started out I wanted to learn more healthy cooking a couple years back. It seemed that all of the healthy recipes had bizarre ingredients (to me) that I had never heard of and so I never tried them. I prepared food as a kid, but I never really paid attention to why we do what when it comes to the kitchen and I never developed a taste for anything outside of like a list of 15 ingredients. I am the kind who goes to american-ish restaraunts and orders the exact same dish or one of two dishes every time. I know, boring and plain... but it never really mattered before. Truth of the matter... I didn't know what I was missing.

The reality is that the 10-ish dishes that I learned growing up don't quite cut the mustard. There have been 3 major roadblocks to expanding...
1) Time - I didn't think you could really make anything else in 30 minutes - and lets not talk about crock pots cuz it's just not a reality for me right now! :-)
2) Ingredients - If I didn't know what all the ingredients were and if I didn't like them all, the recipe was a no-go. wouldn't even try it.
3) Fear - I have this thing where if I don't like it, there's a really low likelihood that I will eat it and that can be quite a waste, not to mention leave you hungry.

Enter FoodNetwork - I gave Rachel Ray a shot and aside from being a little bit over-peppy, I'm impressed. Most of that stuff can be made somewhat reasonably within 30 minutes. What to do with all those crazy ingredients? She indicates where you can substitute which is uber-helpful to me! And I'm a little braver these days (not much, but a little), so I'm trying to expand those horizons. Now I know not everyone loves Rachel, and believe me I can see why, but she kinda makes it look fun and un-intimidating. This is helpful for reducing the fear-factor... eventually I will get over it!

At this point, I can't say cooking is loads of fun... it usually involves reading and re-reading recipes (after I've already watched the show on FoodNetwork) to make sure I understand it, inventory-ing the necessary ingredients (turns out I usually need basically all of it), going and purchasing said ingredients (which takes forever because I never know where they keep a lot of that stuff), then fiddling with them to get the thing rolling.

Let's add a couple things to that process...
- I have to make a point of putting my contacts in to go to the store. I know that seems crazy, cuz I should wear them all the time and for pete's sake at least when I drive, but when I go to the store, I fully need them.
- I also have learned to inventory what tools I need... do I have the necessary pots and pans, knives, etc? somtimes yes, others no.
- Don't laugh, I usually have to use wikipedia to look up a few of the ingredients and figure out what the heck I'm looking for. I've spent too long in the spice aisle looking for vegetables and vice verse. Further, I am a total lost puppy dog in the produce section. And when getting a new kind of meat, I almost always require assistance from the butcher... embarassing, as I'm 27 with a child, but I think I'm getting over it! :-)
-Ooh, must add the ad nausea calls to my Aunt Sharnie... "will the lemons with the fish make the green beans taste funny?" "how come my creme brulee didn't set?" "where the heck do I find a spice grinder???"

So that's the beginning of my journey. Following this entry will be some recipes I've tried and how they went. Pardon the length of some of them, but I get a kick out of the funny things I find out along the way and my crazy improvisations...