My Favorite Meal

I’m a simple creature; ask my nesting partner. When it’s my turn to make dinner it follows a formula: protein and vegetable. Sometimes I’ll remember to add a starch (rice, noodle, potato, bread) but I’d rather double up with another veggie. But more often than not, the third space on the plate is Some Sort of Sweet Thing you can have, as a treat.

I love seafood. When dining out, my current vibe is starting off with raw oysters, more seafood, another veggie, and dessert if there’s room for it. And let me tell you about those seafood boil places. Though nothing beats doing it at home. A shame I live in an apartment now.)

Most times, I’m in that coffeehouse vibe. Coffee, sandwich, snack. That’ll depend on the menu itself, but I enjoy the yogurt or cereal bowls in a pinch. And a scone.

For special occasions (like when my iron is low :eyeroll:), I love a good steak! Medium-rare, with roasted vegetables and some of those lil potatoes.

My favorite thing to cook is chicken. Or rather, cornish hen! I have a tip for you: Cut the whole chicken in half, season it, marinate for one hour or overnight, and put that sucker in the oven. Which reminds me, I need to grab chicken wings. I love baking those til they’re crispy.

I am not ashamed of grabbing a rotisserie chicken for dinner when I don’t feel like cooking a lot. I’ve become incredibly picky when it comes to fast-food stuff (as in, I shouldn’t be eating any). But Cookout still has my number.

Single-Purpose Items in my Kitchen

We have some typical stuff, like lemon juicer, crappy veggie peeler (or I just could be using it wrong), potato masher, garlic squisher, finger slicer …I need a mortar and pestle. And maybe a handheld cheese grater. But I got a couple of favorite.

A Salad Tosser: I make a lot of salads, and I really don’t want to get listeria, so I rinse the hell out of my lettuce and greens. This prevents my salads from being a soggy mess. (I know it’s a salad spinner, but I heard that joke in F is for Family and it’s my joke now.)

I feel like I need… a salad chopper. Could definitely use a food chopper; I’m always chopping on things.

Immersion Blender: I don’t use it often, but when I need it I NEED IT. Especially helpful for soups that require some blending– don’t have to mess with a dozen blender parts. Bonus wire wicker attachment.

Waffle Maker: Waffles are great, and you can toast all sorts of things in there! I don’t use it nearly enough; I should fix that soon.

Fortunately, my weakness for gadgets only applies to electronics. As much as I love avocados, I don’t need a dedicated slicer that badly. But I did invest in some cut-resistant gloves.

But do I have any cooking advice?

Just put garlic in everything (the savory stuff, at least).

If a recipe calls for a certain amount of seasoning, double it. I’ve lost track of how many times I followed steps to the letter, only to have it tasting bland.

Biggest Hot Take

You don’t need to cook with salt. Just use seasoning, dang it! Salt can have its applications (like in baking), but it’s not a seasoning!

You also probably don’t need that much sugar, either!