Reasonably So

SCENE: Last night, in the kitchen.

STEPMOM (watching me sautée mushrooms, tomatoes and onions with sweet basil chicken sausages): You are your father’s daughter! I never could grasp the concept of cooking for one.

SELF (sautéing): When I know I can cook a delicious meal and have the time for it, why would I do anything else?

Yes, I am confident in my cooking skills. When people ask me if I am a good cook, I affirm wholeheartedly. How do I know? Because when I eat the things I have made, they taste wonderful. I’ll be the first to admit that I am most certainly not an expert chef, but I have learned enough about the subtleties of flavor that I can walk around a grocery store and formulate a meal.

In that passing conversation with my stepmom, I realized that those one-person-meals I’ve always made for myself are exactly how I learned to cook well. The risks aren’t quite as high (i.e. only you will know it is too salty/undercooked/overcooked/bland), so the stress of cooking for yourself is way lower. Sure it can be tough to scale down big recipes (easy fix: learn how to use the freezer and love leftovers–some sauces, soups, and stews taste better with time) or intimidating because you don’t want to ruin expensive ingredients, but you’ll never learn unless you try, RIGHT?

My point is that it is NOT hard to be a good cook. Really, it isn’t.

There are really only a few things that you might need to change about your lifestyle to really make it work for you. This is how I did it!

1) Have the right equipment.

Liquid cup measures and dry cup measures are slightly different. Have both! They can be reasonably priced at places like Target.

Measuring spoons are exactly right… using the same spoon with which you eat your morning cereal is not precise.

2) Learn how to read a recipe!!!

The introductions to most cookbooks tell you exactly what each word means that they will use in recipes. Many even have tips on where to find substitute ingredients if it’s a rare or exotic one.  If you read this section ONCE, you will be in better shape.  Also, you must have heard about this grand thing called the internet… I bet if you look up specific instructions like “how to fold in butter” or “how to blanch a pepper” you’ll find some pretty helpful info (maybe even a YouTube video!!).

3) Choose recipes that are on your level–and FOLLOW THEM.

If you read something and you have to ask “what does that even MEAN?” about more than one or two steps listed, you’re probably reaching too far. Start with simple recipes, like making pizza or a basic pasta sauce. After you’ve begun to understand the science of cooking you can start messing around with recipes, improvising, substituting ingredients. You don’t have to be deft and daring in the kitchen just yet. I made the same pasta sauce recipe several times before I started to make little changes (ONE AT A TIME so you can easily determine a mistake if one occurs).

Naturally, there are different levels of talent and experience, but I can assure you that pratice can make you into a master. One of the reasons I find this so important is that I want to know exactly what I’m putting in my body. Plus, I’d be willing to argue that homemade meals always taste better than powdered-pumped-with-preservatives-out-of-the-box meals. I wanted to give a quick recipe (for 1) for those who might insist they don’t have the time to cook- in fact, it is the exact recipe I was preparing last night when this all came into my mind!

Couscous with Chicken Sausage and Sautéed Vegetables

Servings: 1 large, 2 smaller

Prep time: 20 minutes

1 cup couscous

2 chicken sausages (I got Sweet Basil Pesto flavored chicken/turkey sausages from Trader Joe’s.)

2-3 Tbsp. olive oil

1/2 yellow onion (you could try other kinds of onion, if you wanted)

1 cup grape or cherry tomatoes

1 cup mushrooms

Splash of white wine or cooking sherry

1/4 tsp. garlic powder

1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes

Salt and pepper to taste

Grated parmesan

Slice onion into thin, long pieces. Thinly slice tomatoes and mushrooms. Prepare couscous according to box (usually involves boiling water, stirring in couscous and removing the pan from heat for 5 mintues. *TIP: it can sit for longer than 5 minutes without drying out, so don’t feel like you have to babysit it. You could even prepare the couscous prior to starting the rest of the recipe if you felt like multi-tasking would be too much over a hot stove). While couscous water is boiling, heat olive oil in skillet (medium heat). Once hot, place sausages and onions in skillet to pan fry. Sausages will take approx. 15 minutes to fry, turn them frequently to prevent burning. After 10 minutes add tomatoes and mushrooms, wine or sherry, garlic powder, red pepper flakes, and salt and pepper. Sautée for 5 minutes or until mushrooms no longer appear dry. Remove from heat. Slice cooked sausages and serve sautéed vegetables and sausage on a bed of couscous with grated parmesan on top.

——————————————————

I haven’t written many recipes, so let me know if you have any questions before you try it. I just created this the other night from things sitting around in the fridge… if you get experimental, add some other vegetables or maybe some sauce of some kind. Try it with pasta or rice if you feel like it. Let me know what works for you and what doesn’t.

Happy cooking!