Some things are just facts, my friend Laura likes to call them “trufax.” Today’s blog post is the first of my Trufax posts and it features cooking.
Trufax: Learning to Cook Takes Observation, Patience and Experimentation
When I graduated college and hit the real world as a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed 21-year old, I thought I knew it all…until I hit the kitchen. Boo and I had moved in together and were excited to start our new lives. Everything was going fine except for when it came to meal time. After about a week of ramen noodles, pizza and Chinese take-out it suddenly dawned on me: I was eating like a college student. But, wait a minute, I am NOT a college student! I am a sophisticated, grown ass adult. I mean check out this glass of wine and huge new living quarters? Clearly I am no student anymore. So why was I eating like one?
Well cooking like a grown ass adult was much harder than it seemed. My first solution was to glue myself to the TV screen and watch every episode of Rachel Ray’s 30 minute meals that they could possibly air. Maybe a little Paula, a smidge of Flay, but mostly Miss Ray. What I liked about her was that she simplified things and she didn’t cook meals that took 6 hours to prepare.
The first few experiments in the kitchen could rival the slop you find in a science lab. They tasted horrible, I had no idea what I was doing, but Boo ate them up anyway and smiled saying, “mm that was good. Yes lovely.” I knew they were not. But it was encouraging that he acted like he liked the meals. It was also encouraging that we didn’t die.
After a while I started watching my friends cooking. And asking questions. One of the biggest lessons I learned is that cooking takes patience. You can’t expect something to be ready in 3 minutes. This is not the drive up window. Real cooking takes time.
Over the years I started to get better and better. I tried different recipies and stayed exactly to their specifications. But as I got better I started experimenting, playing around with flavors and spices. The more I experimented, the better the dish.
And now I can finally say I am a far cry from the fresh-out-of-college cook. I know my spices, I have patience, and I still love discovering a new recipe. Not that we don’t enjoy a great pizza night every now and then.
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