Ashley's Recent Cooking Adventures

One of the "Marriage Requirements" my parents have for Jen and I is that we must be able to cook 20 meals before getting married. Being the guinea pig as far as the whole marriage thing goes, I was still burning microwaveable mac and cheese when Bran and I tied the knot. I baked a lot when I was little, and could read a recipe, but had little experience with actual cooking. I have since then taken it upon myself to cook from scratch whenever possible (which isn't very often right now, since I work until about 9pm three or four nights a week). On the nights when I don't have work, however, I spend hours in the kitchen.

My sister had a wonderful idea that has since helped me in my cooking endeavor. She knows that I love to collect and organize things, and so she suggested that I cut out any recipes that look good from my many cooking magazines (everything from Real Simple to Taste of Home and Bon appétit). My plan is to eventually make a sort of recipe scrapbook with recipes that I have made and ones I want to make, along with what Bran and I thought of them, and whether I want to make them again. Thus far, I have made several different kinds of pasta dishes (lasagne, homemade macaroni, etc.), lots of chicken dishes, salmon, steak, garlic mashed potatos, etc., and even more deserts (pumpkin pie, pumpkin cupcakes, cake, cookies, custard pie, and my absolute favorite, along with everyone else's, molten lava cakes).


Having my brother-in-law/culinary afficinado live with me has been a tremendous blessing in my own cooking adventure, as he often likes to comment on my uninformed cooking style. His advice is sometimes a little too late ("yeah I would have added the milk much slower and wisked while doing so, which would have prevented such and such and so and so"), but when it is given at the right time, I find it incredibly helpful.

I have once again neglected to upload the photos I wanted to post, but promies to make some grand efforts to do so either today or tomorrow.