I make fun of my lack of cooking skills often but I don’t think I’ve ever explained it. My mother was the youngest of 7 children. She was the baby and was spoiled accordingly. She never learned to cook because she had others to cook for her and I had the same experience. My aunt cooked for my family so I never had the need to cook for myself. Not to mention all the delicious restaurants in our neighborhood. Again, I never needed to know how to cook.
Now that I have a home and I want to thrive in my new role of domestication, I want to learn how to cook. I want to cook. I want to be able to feed my family. I want to be able to provide my family with a good home-made meal from time to time. It might take a while for me to get to point where I’m doing it often and well but I am trying. Although some of my attempts have led to some hilarity, none have led to anything inedible. Thank goodness!
My latest attempt (pictured below), is [thankfully] the only “ugly” creation I’ve concocted. This recipe was courtesy of the Food Network’s Giada. I was excited to try these seemingly simple triangular calzones…until I couldn’t find the already rolled pizza dough she uses in an episode of “Everyday Italian.” So I was left to maneuver a ball of dough all on my own.
Did I mention we don’t own a rolling pin? Yeah, that was fun.
Thankfully, they didn’t taste like they looked. Although the dough was much thicker than I would have liked, it still tasted pretty good and left us very full.
The only dish I’ve made that I don’t have a photo of (and I really regret not capturing) was my Mexican Chicken Enchilada Lasagna. I made the green sauce from scratch and it came out really well. Sure, the apartment smelled like burnt tortillas for a little while but it was delicious! I must make it again soon.
Daddy’s favorite – Sophisticated Mac & Cheese
This Chicken Pepperoni came out well but we aren’t big fans of whole wheat pasta. My advice – if you’re gonna do pasta, do it right. Pasta is fine in moderation.
And finally – the ugly. Don’t worry. They tasted fine. They were thick but pretty okay calzones.
[Originally posted on www.jessicayflores.com]
