Cooking -- with you, and for you.

I think I am one of the luckiest girls out there, as Manfriend loves to cook -- and he's a great one, at that.  On one of our earliest dates, he made me a delicious Thai-themed three-course meal, with pork spring rolls, red curry duck, and a medley of mango desserts.  I remember telling myself to wait at least a week to officially fall in love with him after that night's dinner!

Some of my favorite moments in our relationship involve us simply cooking together.  Whether it's a quick breakfast on lazy Sundays, or more elaborate recipes inspired by our foodie cravings du jour, I really love the time we spend in his (and sometimes my) kitchen.  Mind you, cooking was probably one of my least enjoyable activities before I met him -- and, admittedly, it still kind of is -- but he has been such a wonderful, patient, and humble teacher, that his enthusiasm for picking out the right spices and slicing and dicing vegetables just the right way has quietly transferred onto me over the past two years. 

Since living on my own, it has truly been a daunting task to force myself to cook for, well, myself.  To be quite honest, there are days where I am eyeing my stash of cookies and other assorted snacks and I come very, very close to qualifying them all as "dinner".  (Oh, the shame!) 

But I have also realized that the better I eat, the more energy and focus I have at work and at school.  This knowledge alone has really helped fuel my desire to eat healthy and be more careful about what I feed my body.  The fact that I am now paying my way towards a graduate degree has also reinforced my willingness to save money by cooking at home, versus eating out. 

So far, my repertoire mainly consists of chicken and vegetable soup and a variety of pastas.  I know, nothing to brag, but coming from someone who previously only knew how to make omelets and scrambled eggs, I'm excited to see what I can cook up next!