Extensive Bean Research

This week I have accomplished quite a few cooking feats and I have to say, that I'm pretty much amazing. You can tell me how humble I am later. This week started with tacos. You can't exactly go to the store get a taco packet so I made it myself. I was a little skeptical because I had to leave out a few ingredients, but after careful mixing I opened the bag... and it smelled like tacos. I was stoked. I made Mike smell it. Perhaps the fact that I was so excited about this shows how much I cooked in the states.

That afternoon - chili. In the states I might ask myself, "How can I make this chili taste really good?" but here I just ask "How can I make this taste stuff like chili?" This time I started with the beans. I was reading up on beans and apparently if you don't cook them all the way they release this stuff that's really bad for you. No pressure Em! You have to soak dried beans overnight then cook them for like an hour before you can even get to the chili part - I didn't even know that before my extensive bean research. At home my chili consists of opening cans and dumping in a pot, but here it takes a little more finesse. Then on to chili seasoning. I was a little worried that it would taste like tacos cause it's a lot of the same ingredients. Good news - I put it all together and voila - tasted like chili.

If you are student that has been to our house for a meal you know the only thing we can cook is spaghetti. Ok some things don't change. Last night I had two girls over for dinner and we made... wait for it... spaghetti. One thing that is awesome about this place is that it really doesn't take much to get positive feedback from friends. They raved about how delicious it was and how good a cook I was. I love it. They helped me throw some noodles in some water and dump the can of sauce in the pan - but apparently it was very impressive. I really hope I can adopt this attitude of gratitude and encouragement.

Then we headed back to the kitchen to bake some apple pie in honor of Thanksgiving. It was the first time my friends had ever baked anything, and the first time they had ever used an oven. It it was kinda like baking with middle schoolers - super cute, super messy, and of course about 30 photo opportunities. (unfortunately she didn't have any way to send me the pics - sorry guys). My friend was pretty excited. She called her mom to tell her all about it.