I love cooking!

I never would've thought I'd like cooking. From a young age I was set upon not cleaning because women were expected to clean, and anyway, how nice it would be for the roles to reverse and have a man cook for me! I survived in college by eating peanut butter sandwiches, garlic toast, ramen, microwave popcorn, and instant mashed potatoes when I decided to stay in. Somehow I had enough money to eat out and get drunk (someone said that was a talent drunks had, to always have enough money to drink).

But now, at my old age of well...not yet over 30, but no longer 25...I am learning to cook. Sauteed potoatoes, lightly breaded diced chicken in olive oil, REAL mashed potatoes, rice pilaf, fruit salads, turkey burgers...after a trying day at work there's some magic in cooking.

Yeah, that sounds weird, but there's something comforting in watching a turkey burger brown up as it's cooked, watching chicken broth soak into rice. And if you clean up while your food has just begun to cook, you won't have to worry about anything burning or a mess for after you've cleaned your plate and just want to sit back and enjoy the digestion from the fruits of your labor after a long hard day at an NPO. Not that I think every job is cake, but work at an NPO and you'd know that you're supposed to be able to do everything because you're constantly understaffed. You sort of become a jack-of-all trades.

But not only is cooking relaxing for me, its healthy. I know that unless I'm buying organic I'm still getting additives and all that junk, but the food is actually fresh. Because I try to cook something nearly every night, my body nearly rejects fast food. I can't eat it without getting a massive headache that stays with me for the day, like a caffeine headache, only a grease headache or something, I don't know. Anyway, cooking doesn't need to be something that's done by the June Cleaver's of the world. It can be done by anyone, and with the help of Rachel Ray, you don't even need that much time!