thoughts on cooking

There was once a day when I loved nothing more than to get out a really long complicated recipe and spend all day cooking. I even loved to cook huge meals with multiple sides and deserts. Now when scanning recipes, if they look long and complicated, I look the other way. At our house we have a tiny kitchen that is not well lit and we don't have a dishwasher. Or a disposal, as I pronounce is "dispose-ALL" which makes Brent laugh every time. And now our lovely place on the lake has some type of pipe or septic problem so we can't wash dishes at all. If you run water in the kitchen sink, it fills up the bathroom sink with black water. So lately we've resorted to fast food, the diner, or hot pockets and frozen pizza. This is a real tragedy to me seeing as cooking is something that makes me truly happy. I guess I could pretend I was still at NOLS living in the mountains and I could take my dishes out to the lake and weave myself a sponge out of grass!

I started thinking about cooking and how it comes natural to some and for others it is something hard to learn. I've been looking through my recipes trying to find some good easy recipes for a friend of mine who didn't inherit natural cooking abilities and I thought, if I put this on here how I've written it down, it could potentially be disastrous. For example, if a recipe calls for certain spices, I never write down the measurements, I just use them according to taste. If you're making lasagna and I just write down lasagna noodles and to layer them in the baking dish, someone might honestly not know that you have to cook them first before layering! For that reason I will attempt to give some fairly simple recipes and go into extra detail!

Spaghetti with Zucchini and Squash
1 Box whole grain spaghetti (I use Barilla)
4 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 garlic clove; chopped
2 zucchini; thinly sliced
2 yellow squash; thinly sliced
1 jar of tomato & basil pasta sauce
Black pepper and salt (to taste)
1/2 c. parmesan cheese

First cook the pasta according to the directions on the box. This part makes me laugh. I remember when living with Lacey she yells from the kitchen "how much is a quart?!" and I asked what in the world she was doing, which was trying to boil water for pasta. I've never really read directions on the box of pasta, I've always filled a pot up with water, let it boil, add the pasta and just taste it ever so often until it's cooked. So for this purpose, read the box, and just so you know, 1 quart is equal to 4 cups!

In another saute, sauce pan, or skillet, add the 4 tablespoons of olive oil. Set the stove to medium heat and place the pan on the burner. Add the chopped garlic to the pan and saute until it turns yellowish in color. Then add your zucchini and squash and saute for 3 or 4 minutes. Add the jar of pasta sauce to the same pan, stir frequently, and add some salt and pepper.

The after draining the water and removing the spaghetti from the pot, add the cooked noodles to the same pan with the pasta sauce, zucchini, squash and garlic. Mix it all together and let it cook for just about a minute. Take the whole mess of pasta and sauce and vegetables and dump it in a serving bowl; then top it off with the 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese!

Hopefully this seems fairly easy enough. I think pasta is one of the most versatile things you can cook. If that seems too complicated, you can always go to the grocery store, buy some Buitoni pasta and one of their accompanied sauces. My favorite is their fettucini and the alfredo sauce. Delish! I actually make that a lot which requires minimal effort. To jazz it up a bit I may add peas, asparagus, and chicken, or even spinach! 

I hope this is a good starter! If I haven't explained it fully don't hesitate to let me know! :)

Happy eating!