I have been exposed to a lot of baking, and I've always liked it. Almost all of my family members are really big on making holiday treats: cookies, pies, fruit cake. In fact, while suffering through math classes at New Mexico Tech, I always joked about dropping out to become a pastry chef. So it's no surprise that I enjoyed baking once given an oven and various other appliances to play with.
My enjoyment of cooking was much more surprising, however. Although home-cooked meals were not unusual as I grew up, I never did much cooking on my own. It never really interested me. I always joked that I could cook only if it involved a microwave or pasta. My specialty was always Hamburger Helper, which has always been actually pretty impressive to me, since I'm afraid of cooking meat.
So I was pretty surprised when my first Grownup Home-Cooked Meal (grilled pork chop, steamed broccoli, and fried rice -- totally fancy, I know) was actually fun to make -- and pretty good to consume, as well.
In the meantime, I also tried baking in the oven -- which has been a challenge because it is possessed -- and in my breadmaker (which is challenging because 3 HOURS IS A LONG TIME GUYS!). I even tried making lasagna in my crock pot, which was only part disaster -- my crock pot is also possessed.
I've been taking pictures of some of my culinary end-products, so I figured I might as well write about them too. So... here we are.
Sho-yu tamago (soy-sauce eggs, recipe here), breadmaker potato bread, and out-of-the-box muffins (which are ugly because my oven is possessed -- but they were tasty). I'll subsequently post more details of these items later.
