Origin story
March 3, 2021 9:33 PM
This post has no pictures. Just a personal story.
I was a really, really picky eater growing up. It seemed like all I really liked eating was porridge with salty fish, salty olives, or salty eggs. I barely touched school lunches until I was in high school. But slowly, over time, partly from going to college and partly from my little sister telling me how much she loved certain foods, I started to expand my tastes.
I ended up gaining 30 pounds during my first semester of college. That's right, I quadrupled the Freshman 15.
At the time, I hated cooking. Hated having to come up with meals, hated going to the grocery store, hated the prep work involved, hated the way my own food tasted, and hated the cleanup that went along with it. Not to mention I was absolutely terrible at it. My mom might have tried to teach me how to cook a few times during high school. I distinctly remember trying to make stir fried cabbage. My mom insisted on turning the heat up to high and dumping all of the cabbage into the pan even though it barely fit. It was a mess.
I couldn't even cook easy things. I burned my leg once in high school while making eggs. I had put oil in the pan and when I cracked the egg in it, the oil splattered and a huge piece of it hit my upper leg. It created a scar that lasted for about two years.
Throughout college, I got used to eating out all the time. Yeah, it was expensive, but it felt justified. At one point, I figured I would just make enough money so I'd never have to cook again. But after two years of living in a dorm, I moved to an apartment, and I figured I'd try to be more of an adult.
I lost all the weight I had gained as a freshman after a year of living in an apartment. I attribute part of that to running everyday. I also attribute that to the fact that I was cooking for myself. Honestly, it was a struggle. I cooked so many meals and felt so dejected so many times because my food was awful.
Because cooking was such a struggle, I went back to eating out more. I got a decent paying job right out of college, so I figured I had the money for it. But then something happened that has nothing to do with food at all. I got bored at work. I got so bored that I had an existential crisis sitting in my cubicle wondering if my life was going to be like this for the next 40 years.
No. No it wasn't. I refused. I started saving up money and making it my life goal to retire as early as possible. But that meant I needed to stop eating out so much and I needed to start cooking meals again.
While browsing through early retirement forums, I stumbled across Budget Bytes, which is a food blog focused around making easy, cheap meals. I tried one recipe and it changed. my. life. Holy crap, I can actually cook things that taste good.
Eventually, I hit a point where I was consistently getting disappointed at restaurants because it was never as good as the food I made myself. I had a complete 180 shift from where I was in college.
At the time of writing this, it's been about five years since that first delicious meal that I made. I've gotten better at cooking since then, but I still have so so much more to learn. What started out as a way to save money has transformed into both a passion of mine and a forever project.
Fried mac 'n cheese: Take 2
February 7, 2021 6:08 PM
If you read the table in my last post closely, you'll notice that I had mac n cheese a few times. As you know, I made a gigantic batch of mac n cheese last Thanksgiving and I still have way too many frozen mac n cheese blocks sitting in a bag. So I decided to fry up some more of these.
I reread my old fried mac n cheese post, and I had suggested to myself to dip the blocks in flour before dipping them in egg. So I tried that this time. Did it make a difference? I have no idea.
But you know what? This deep frying experience was...much less flail-y than I expected it to be. Maybe deep frying food isn't that scary. I just had to not turn the heat up so much. That must be the cause of so much of my cooking anxiety growing up. My mom always insisted on everything being cooked on high heat, but you know what that resulted in? Flying pieces of cabbage and a huge oil burn on my leg.
But not this time. This went surprisingly well.
Odds 'n Ends
February 10, 2019 8:50 AM
Just another post of three recipes that I'm lumping together for no apparent reason. All of these recipes are from Budget Bytes.
Beef and Cabbage Stir Fry
Remember that salad we had a while ago? Well we turned the rest of the cabbage into stir fry.
My mom bought me this huge 6 quart pan years ago, and I finally took it out of the box. Which was a good idea, because the first time I ever stir fried cabbage I spilled it everywhere since it barely fit in the pan.
Fluffy Garlic Herb Mashed Potatoes
Well, at least I think that's what recipe my sister used. I was feeling mentally drained after work on Friday, so she cooked this on her own.
Our mashed potatoes weren't really all that fluffy since they were only hand mashed. But I personally like it with chunks. I know my sister deviated from the recipe, but that was mostly because she didn't really measure everything.
Oh, and she added a whole head of roasted garlic.
German Potato Salad
And this is what I used the other half of the potatoes for.
I probably should have cut the potatoes before boiling them because I think they still had a bit of a crunch in the middle. Oh well, I've talked to people that eat potatoes raw so I figured it's okay.
If I make this again, I would cut the potatoes in half before boiling, and also use way more bacon than it calls for. I doubled the bacon, but it still felt like it could have used more.
