Riley, No!

I have learned a lot in the past couple weeks! (Don't fret, I didn't forget about my loyal readers.....ahem..mom.)

I think that one thing that can be very overwhelming is the idea that every time you cook it has to be super elaborate and difficult. What I have learned, is that even making small meals throughout the day counts. I have found that having tomato, mozzarella cheese, and pesto gives you a plethora of options for fun and easy meals. ( But really, I just wanted to use to word plethora in a blog post :)) Just the other day, I put a layer of pesto on some sourdough bread, sliced tomato over the top with some cheese, and broiled it for a few minutes. Super easy and delicious! However, it was time to do a dinner again, and so tonight I tried to cook another recipe that I have been dying to eat. This is the second time I have cooked a meal with tilapia, but I am a huge fan. It is a super light fish, and goes well with a lot of different sides. This meal intrigued me because it was basically just tilapia with a spanish type seasoning (Lots of paprika). It was pretty simple, timing it with the rice was probably the most challenging part, besides...

"RILEY GET OUT OF THE KITCHEN!!!!!!!!!!"

For those of you who don't know, I have a seven month old puppy. Which means she is not at the "Awwwww what a sweet little puppy" stage. She is at the "GO TO YOUR KENNEL SPAWN OF SATAN" stage. Also, she has a delightful little habit of being invisible in the kitchen until you are trying to do something difficult. At that time, you will feel a little wet, cold nose touch the back of your knee in just the right way to make you jump. Also, forget trying to get pans out of the bottom cupboards, the dog is right there, and thinks that the best way to help you is to just climb in said cupboard, and dirty all the dishes. To be honest, I'm surprised I got anything done besides yelling "RILEY, GET OUT OF THE KITCHEN." My hope, is that someday I will have this perfect dog that will lay just outside the kitchen until they are told it is time to come cuddle. For now, however, my meals will have to be patient while I yell at my dog like a mental person. She is catching on, and sometimes I would even go as far as to say she is a good puppy.....Sometimes. Despite my struggles with my over-active retriever, it did turn out great, and I would definitely make it again 

Now I have to work on her not begging....even though this is super cute:

....and blurry...I need photography lessons as well. Any takers.....lol.

As I was creating the background to this blog I thought to myself, "Hmm it might be funny to add some  flame as a joke."

Hilarious.

Why is that hilarious......Well, let us start at the beginning of tonight's festivities. (And by festivities I mean me....in my kitchen, with my dog laying over my feet)

So, I recently got an Ipad. In addition to that, I got all the fancy things that go along with it. For instance, there is an app called "allrecipes" or something like that, and you can choose the kind of meal you want to make based on the amount of time, occasion...you name it. I came upon some great recipes, and found a slightly more difficult meal to cook than last week. "Chicken with tomato and basil cream sauce."I had a much easier time at the grocery store this week, and to be honest, I felt pretty invincible.

Everything was going to be perfect. I had cleaned the kitchen earlier, I had all the ingredients, and had the entire night off. My roommate was entertaining some of our co-workers in the living room, but I thought that as long as I had the kitchen to myself I would be ok. 

It started great! Everything was smelling good, I was multi-tasking... (I even found time to socialize with the girls in the kitchen!) <------mistake

That is when it happened. The inevitable, "What is that you are burning in the kitchen" smell. I tried to play it off first. I kept sniffing the asparagus wondering if this was just their natural odor. It was not. It was starting to get worse and people were starting to cough a little. Naturally, being great with common sense, I just continued to sniff the asparagus inquisitively. Finally I looked down at a glowing orange flame. Yup. Something was on fire. In all my sniffing, I had failed to notice my roommates decorative halloween hot pad sliding into the burner. The worst part...is that it was surprisingly hard to put out! I ran it under water for quite some time before it stopped glowing orange. Needless to say, our company was not particularly impressed by my culinary abilities.  I do have to say, the meal I made was probably the most delicious meal I have ever cooked. Flame and all.

Just look at this: 

The sauce was delicious, and it tasted great with the veggies. I am glad I am going to have leftovers! There you have it. My ONE AND ONLY fire story. I vow not to set anything on fire again. 

...at least...not a hot pad. (Sorry Alli!)

I'm going to cook a meal tonight. I like fish, lets start with fish.

Broil for 30 Minutes.

.......Okay, they lost me at the word "broil." So I just closed my cookbook and got in my car. Although I mumbled some random excuse to my roommates and my dog about where I was going, I definitely went and got a sub, ate in my car, and called it good. (It is shocking how many times I eat in my car as a way to avoid cooking. It is really embarrassing.)

        So for the last two weeks, with the goal for this blog hanging over my head, I successfully avoided any real time in the kitchen. Sure, I eat pretty healthy.  I buy lots of cold veggies and hummus, snack on almonds, and keep sweets (for the most part) out of the house. The whole cooking scene kind of intimidates me. Every time I try to relax and scroll my favorite social media sites, I am confronted with numerous images of perfectly plated dinners with titles like "My wife is the best." or "My new recipe!" 

*rolls eyes*

I have convinced myself for awhile that this is pointless. I am actually out DOING stuff instead of just spending all day in the kitchen. But secretly, it is because I am frustrated with the fact that the directions "Broil for 30 minutes" is like speaking a different language to me. I can follow directions just fine....I mean...I have MASTERED the art of mac and cheese. It is all the little stuff

. What do you buy when you grocery shop.?  Because I do not happen to have flat leaf parsley just lying around my house.

Two weeks later, I was  determined to actually just GO for it. I wanted to make fish, but didn't want to broil it. (Because I had convinced myself this was too overwhelming of a task.) 

To cook this weeks meal, I enlisted the help of my friend Brittany, who is in a similar boat as me. The recipe was for "Pan seared tilapia with citrus vinaigrette." Nothing too difficult. With a copy of Cooking Light in my hand, we set out to get our list of ingredients. Good thing I avoided that word broil....but wait....what are,,,, shallots?  (I guess blogging is confusing to me as well because the font just randomly changed) As it turns out, they are just like a form of onion. Not some long skinny green plant like I had pictured in my head. With a long list of random ingredients in hand, I buckled down and made what seems like possibly the easiest fish recipe I could have made. It seems as though cooking may not be as hard as I think.....the trick is not to be afraid to ask questions. Even though it might be embarrassing...everyone has to start somewhere. Plus, asking a question is a whole lot less embarrassing then eating subs in your car. 

It was pretty yummy. 

Oh, and to broil something just means you turn the dial on your stove to broil. 

Yup....that is it.

Hi!

I'm Jenna.

I'm going to learn to cook this year.