be a better cook

Again I bought more cookbooks this year. And used them!
I did not add many dishes to my list, but am getting good at the ones that are in my repertoire already.

I can now also cook
- Risotto! Several variations – plain, lemon, tomato, prawn (Marie Claire cookbooks mostly)
- Prawn, peas and beans stirfry (Jamie Oliver recipe)
- Chicken cacciatore (Martha Stewart recipe)
- Oven roasted ratatouille (Clotilde Dusolier recipe)
- Brocolli and apple quiche (Clotilde Dusolier recipe)
- Leek and salmon turnovers (Clotilde again)
- Oven roasted polenta (Clotilde again)

On my list for this year
- Spring rolls!
- a good stew
- Still want to make a good home made pizza

I need to start making my own soup again.
I’m thinking about getting a proper freezer (I now only have this teeny tiny box at the top of my freezer). This would stimulate me to cook more: I only have time to cook properly in the weekends, but if I cook too much I’m stuck with leftovers for days – which I could now freeze and eat later during the week. And it would help me with my goal of bringing home made lunches to work to replace the greasy cantina food.

I bought even more cook books… I just love reading them, they’re so inspiring. Anyhow, I can now add some more proper dishes to last year’s list:

I can now also cook
- Cauliflower and ham quiche (Weight Watchers recipe)
- Roastbeef (last year’s Christmas dinner failed miserably, this year’s was superb)
- Pork (tenderloin) and mushroom oven-packet (Ainsley Harriot recipe)
- Chicken-brocolli gratin (Ainsley Harriot recipe) (this contains Bechamel-cheese sauce)
- Chicken-leek pasta sauce
- Smoked salmon – philadelphia pasta sauce

- And I’ve started to grill salmon, but that doesn’t really count as a dish :)

Still on my list
- that risotto from last year remains uncooked
- duck breast! I’m making this for New Year!

I should make a point of it when I have got the time to get out my cook books and make a decent shopping list. I usually get blackouts during grocery shopping and come home with a bunch of random ingredients. I’m not accomplished enought (yet) to make proper dishes out of random stuff…

But all in all, I can say I’ve improved this year :)

I can cook for myself – or maybe I should say I can prepare food for myself. But I’d like to be able to invite friends over for dinner (and yeah, maybe even impress them a little). Not just defrost some fish and smack a bunch of veggies next to it on a plate. Real proper meals. Even using herbs and spices and stuff.
2 years ago I started cooking. My mom never liked to cook, so I learned nothing at home and could only cook an egg and instant ramen noodles when I moved out. And mashed potatos but I hate those :/

I can cook
- great spaghetti sauce (my own recipe)
- chicken/leek pastry pie (Jamie Oliver’s)
- cod/tomato/onion oven dish (cut out from a woman’s magazine)
- all kinds of soup (some my own, some from cookbooks)

- all sorts of baked goods, but I guess that’s baking not cooking. I’m pretty good at baking.

I’d like to be able to cook
- a decent, light, quick pasta dish not involving the sauce from above
- risotto
- quiche (I think I should be able to do this as I’m good at baking)
- home made, non-greasy pizza (sounds easy too)

I own over 10 cook books already (I really like flipping through them), so I hope to make some progress this year.