Wednesday, January 14, 2009

A Cook Is Born

Have I ever mentioned that cooking is not my thing?  It's no wonder that among the many bridal shower gifts I received 13 years ago there was an assortment of cookbooks.  At that point my entire cooking repertoire consisted of heating up soup, making grilled cheese sandwiches, sloppy Joe's, and whipping up a mean Hamburger Helper meal.  As Rich had been a bachelor for a good number of years before I entered his life, he had to help me learn the basics, such as how to tell if meat was cooked to proper temperature.

Even though I've learned a lot since then, I still have to follow recipes to make everything, and I believe those all-inclusive frozen meal kits with the meat and veggies are my favorite way to tackle meal preparation.  Things are changing, though.

Last week I made vegetable soup all by myself. 

No recipe.  No kit.  From scratch.

That isn't to say I didn't have help.  You know my friend, Judy?  She is a cook.  A good one.  She makes a variety of specialties, including omelettes, chicken & dumplings, and her famous pizza.  When I observe her cooking, I get inspired to go home and cook something because she makes it all look so easy.  She is practically calm, cool, and collected whenever she cooks, and would you believe she even has FUN?  This is very foreign to me as I am more the type to stress about what to make, groan, kick the cat, and can't wait for the experience to be over. 

So I bet you're wondering where I got the idea to make vegetable soup.  It happened that we were talking about eating healthier and how eating more vegetables and soup is a good way to fill up on less calories.  It sounded like a pretty good idea to me, so I inquired how one might go about making a vegetable soup... you know... in case a certain girl who hates cooking might just be interested in trying something new.  And easy. 

So she took me into the kitchen right then and there and showed me how to do it.  I learned it was a piece of cake.  (Well, it was actually soup, but that's just the expression.)

Anyways... a cook was born.  I went home and made vegetable soup ALL BY MYSELF.  Would you like to see a picture? 

(Of course, I took a picture!)

 

Vegetable Soup

Campbell's has got nothin' on me!

4 comments:

  1. To bad I dont like vegy soup!

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  2. Yes! That is too bad, mister.

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  3. Liz, it looks great! I know nothing about cooking...except the very basics...and I mean..VERY basics! LOL! So that is inspiring to me to hear this! I wish I knew how to cook!

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  4. Liz, looks good. So, you're cooking, you knit/crochet (never knew the difference...is there one?) Your taking up reading 10 pages.....I'm impressed.
    I had to laugh, I burned the grilled cheese I made the other night, and I usually overcook the mac and cheese noodles 'cause I'm too worried the noodles will be chewy. I haven't found a housewife "talent" yet. I do have to say, the only thing that I make well is lasagna...for some reason it always turns out well.

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