Why I'm finally learning to Cook

The last straw came on Thursday night. I was hosting a holiday party and when one of my friends showed up he immediately headed for the kitchen... okay, that's not entirely true. First, he changed around the lighting in my apartment to improve the ambiance and then went straight for the kitchen. He opened all of my cupboards, suggested that if I was planning on serving the pastry puffs in the freezer, I should take them out to let them thaw, and then asked if I had been planning on making the spinach and artichoke dish for which I had two cans of artichoke hearts sitting on the counter. My response was something like, "I thought you had to cook the pastry puffs."

Forty-five minutes later, when one friend had finished making a spinach and artichoke concoction and another friend had pointed out that I forgot to put napkins and utensils on the table with the food (which was all store bought), and I was officially tipsy, I vowed that if and when I ever host another holiday party, I will know how to cook.

So great, I finally have the theme for a blog, and no, I will not be doing a search to see just how many other people thought to write a blog about learning how to cook. This way I can pretend that I am still unique, original and creative, and when that movie deal as the sequel to the movie Julie and Julia is proposed, I will be ready.

My plan for 2011 is going to be to cook and prepare one new recipe per week from my collection of over 10 cookbooks that hang out in my apartment looking pretty and colorful with their glossy photos that I sometimes like to look at. I love buying cookbooks, thinking about how maybe this cookbook will be different. Maybe this time I'll actually be able to develop some signature dishes. Maybe this time I'll learn what different spices do. Maybe this time I'll learn how to improvise when I don't have the correct item. Maybe this time I will fill my fridge and cupboards with food and I won't be told that my kitchen might as well be a bachelor pad (It did come in very handy storing all the alcohol and store bought items for Thursday night. What do people do for parties when they actually have other food in their fridge?).

I really thought that a lot of this knowledge would just come to me over time after finishing college. Unfortunately, it appears now, as I've reached almost 4 years graduated, and the knowledge from my cookbooks has not simply transmitted itself from the pages into my brain, that I'm going to actually have to teach myself how to cook, and work for it.

So, that's what I'm going to do. At the end of 2011, I will hopefully have 52 new recipes, and I'm looking for at least 30 of them to have come out decently. Maybe then I won't feel like such a cooking loser at my own party.