For the love of Cooking.

If you know me at all, then you know I love to cook - really love to cook.  As a kid, I spent a great deal of time making my own "recipes," which never turned out quite as I envisioned, and pretty successfully baking three-ingredient Peanut Butter Munches from my "Mouse Cookies" cookbook.  I still bake those cookies.  "Mouse Cookies" was my first cookbook ever, and I just knew I was on the verge of adulthood when it showed up with the school book orders.  Oh yes, remember book orders?

When I started living on my own, I knew the basics but found that I quickly grew tired of my limited repertoire.  On top of that, food was (and is) one of the biggest expenses on my broke college student budget.  Each time I stepped up to the checkout at the grocery store, I found (and find) myself wincing as each item caused the numbers on the till to climb.

In culmination, I realized that a) I was bored of both cooking and eating my go-to meals, b) I had to spend a good deal of money on food, whether I liked it or not, and c) after the cost of living, I couldn't afford to do much of anything else.  I decided that I may as well do something fun and gainful with the whole scenario.  Expanding my skills in the kitchen would make the night-after-night monotony of eating in more exciting - gradually it has become even more enjoyable than eating out, in a lot of cases!  It would also give me a fun way spend my time while I wasn't doing all the other things I couldn't or shouldn't justify spending money on.  I turned the chore of groceries and cooking from not just a mandatory expense, but a main form of "fun" expense.

I began collecting recipes here and there, from magazines, friends and family members, online, and keeping my eyes open for great cookbooks.  (I suppose I should add that I am what some would call a "health freak," so we aren't talkin' Paula Deen here, people.)  Some of the people I love began to notice that I was taking a serious interest in cooking, and I've received some beautiful books as gifts.  From all of these resources and plenty of practice, I've learned enough that I can now make up my own recipes and end up with an edible, even tasty, finished product.  One of the more rewarding products of this endeavour is cooking for and with loved ones.  I swear this is a love language.  (If you don't have a clue what that means, don't worry.  You will once you're married.  Sometimes I'm kind of a little old lady.)  I also get way too excited about new kitchen gadgets.

If I have one piece of advice from all this rambling, this is it, and I swear by it: cook some of your faves in bulk, divy it up into one- or two-serving portions, and freeze.  On days full of freetime but low on funds, it's a fun project to take on, and on nights when you don't have the time or energy (ehem, midterms?), all you have to do is thaw and you have one dee-lish-us homemade meal.  Comfort foods seriously encouraged here.  Some of my go-tos include marinara, chili, chowders, Swedish meatballs, and pumpkin bread.  Yum.