Cooking conquests

Back in the days when I lived in CA and worked in a Residence Hall, DH and I NEVER ate at home. It was partially a part of my crazy work hours and a CA thing. People in their 20's and 30's don't really cook at home in CA. They may get take out and eat at home but that doesn't really count.

Well, I came from a family that ate at home a lot and usually a home cooked meal by my mom and sometimes my dad. My DH had a similar experience that he always sat down with his family for a home cooked meal. Both my Mom and MIL are great cooks and I have gotten recipes from both of them.

I was never one to just cook on my own. I would buy pasta sauce in a jar which in my family is terrible since we are Italian and my Mom, cousin, Aunt, etc all made their own sauce. They all made it differently but they made it from scratch. Now, I do to. I love it. There isn't really a recipe but I based it on the ingredients my Mom puts in hers and add more garlic. Love the garlic!

I also make my own enchilada sauce and have sworn to NEVER buy premade grocery store sauce for enchiladas or spaghetti. Since we have moved into our house almost 4 years ago I have held true to that.

Our CA life consisted of eating out or doing take out 7 days a week. Every Tuesday night was staff meeting night for me so we went to Subway. Still miss the owner of the Subway in Santa Clara, CA. He always had fresh cookies for us and he gave me extra avocado on my sandwich :)

I have found that I really enjoy cooking and DH and I are committed to having family dinner every night. We had that experience and we want our kids to have that experience as well.

I have this list of dishes that I want to make and haven't and a growing list of things I have made from scratch and that have come out pretty well. I also have a list of things that I tried to make and were horrible failures. (I can't get the smell of that funky meatloaf out of my mind--trust me it was bad. I tried to do something new with meatloaf and I should have stuck to the basics.) My next feat is to tackle curry. I have just recently started to try curry in preparation for Ethiopian food. Some components of curry will be similar to Ethiopian food but not exactly the same. That being said it is hard to find all of the spices you need to make Indian or Ethiopian food so I have purchased a mild curry paste. Yes, I bought a whole jar and I am planning on using it tomorrow.

I am going to make Chicken Curry. DH likes Indian food and really hates that I don't want to eat it. He used to eat Indian food quite often when we lived in CA and has eaten it some but not often since we have moved here. I think he is quite shocked that I am making Chicken Curry. I have no idea how it will come out or if either one of us will like it but it is a step.

A step that I need to take. I don't tend to try new things or eat spicy (hot) or heavily spiced (seasoned) food. I am pretty boring. That needs to change as I am going to need to eat while in Ethiopia and everyone talks about how awesome the food is and I don't want to miss out on that. Sure there are things that I will never eat (liver, tripe, other weird animal parts or animals) but I feel like I am missing out on this whole world of food. I am tackling Indian and have yet to tackle Thai and then this summer we are hitting the Ethiopian restaurant in Madison.

I will keep you all posted on my culinary feats and my hopefully tasty new favorite foods.