As the semester inched to its close, I realized I needed to do something about my misfit selection of ingredients before they spoiled and became useless. Essentially, this is when I taught myself how to cook confidently.
December 6th
I bought a pound of sour cream because I got really excited about putting it on latkes. However, my potato to cream ratio was way off, so I looked up sour cream recipes and found one for alfredo sauce. Coming from Daisy, it wasn't surprising how accentuated the flavor of sour cream turned out, but I was still unhappy and did not photograph my Angel Hair Alfredo™. Rather, I ate half of it and saved the rest for a later, more desperate date.
For Sunday brunch the following day, I reheated yesterday's dinner with the other day's plain fusilli on the stove top. My baby spinach was set to expire soon, so I threw that in too. And some of the shredded parmesan that the alfredo recipe called for. This mess was probably the best thing I've ever made.
December 8th
The gallery I intern for had too much cheese that would expire before their next wine and cheese event, so the event planner gave three packages to me, one of them being a small block of Gouda.
My friends were too busy to eat cheese with me, so I went ahead and diced the Gouda with a butter knife (LOL) and decided I knew enough about cooking to wing the rest of it. I boiled the rest of my angel hair pasta and stir fried the rest of my frozen vegetables in olive oil. In a saucepan, I combined everything—the gouda was so abundant that it became a sauce. The result tasted so unhealthy that I wallowed in self-hatred during and after eating it. Then I bought bubble tea to feel better because I felt guilty for throwing that meal out.
December 11th
I redeemed myself in a simple, three to four ingredient meal.
Boil pasta, stir fry tomatoes, mix it all up, et cetera.
December 12th
Because my frying pan lacks a handle (I need a tiny screwdriver to get it on), I prefer to use this saucepan which I had originally bought for ramen:
I don't like my yolk runny unless my eggs are poached, so I broke the yolk of my fried eggs. I halved grape tomatoes with my trusty butter knife and threw in baby spinach for color/as an afterthought. I also added red pepper flakes and garlic salt last minute, so they kinda sat on top of my Omelette Sunny Side Frankenstein™ willy nilly.
December 13th
The go-to meal. This photo suffices for what I ate several times for the rest of December until Christmas Eve (when I went home):
New ingredients and experiments are risky since they may spoil or go to waste—this late in the game, I stand by sticking with the/my classic.
