A lot of the time I find myself thinking of my life in terms of how __-year-old Lindsey would have thought. For example, if you’d have gone back only a few short years–let’s say four years ago–23-year-old Lindsey would have scoffed at the idea that I would cook several meals a week, especially meals that included 1) meat and 2) the oven. 23-year-old Lindsey’s favorite meal was pasta smothered with sauteed mushrooms, black olives, and parmesan cheese (the Sargento pre-shredded kind in a bag, not the good stuff), and I never ever baked anything in the oven. (I STILL love that meal–it’s a definite comfort staple of mine–but my cooking repertoire has expanded quite a bit.) And if you’d told me I would not only be cooking with meat, but that I would be handling it with my bare hands? I would have thought you to be delusional.

One of my biggest regrets is that I never took my mom up on any offers to teach me how to cook (first because I was utterly uninterested in learning how to cook, and then later because I was in denial about how much time we had left together), but living on my own and becoming more interested in food/ingredients gradually moved me into the kitchen. The prospect of cohabitating with a big meat-eater (Michael’s favorite food is steak, to no one’s surprise) made me determined to learn how to cook with meat, even though I don’t normally eat a lot of meat. My diet is fairly vegetarian in nature, with seafood added when I can get it, and only occasionally including meat; my cooking goals for living out here are to increase the amount of fruits and vegetables I eat and still incorporate meat into at least one dish a week for Michael.

Michael and I have a great arrangement: I do all the cooking, and he does all the dishes. I buy all the groceries; he treats when we eat out. It works out really well, and he doesn’t mind at all that he’s my guinea pig for my cooking experiments. He’s been subjected to oversalted, undercooked broccoli, wine sauce that tasted like bile (too much lemon juice added), and dry chicken…but I think I hit more than I miss! Three recent discoveries: meat thermometers are AWESOME, those Ziploc microwave steam bags make fresh broccoli really yummy, and freezing (and subsequently thawing) meat is really easy. I know these may all seem obvious, but to a cooking novice they are earth-moving!

While I love making dinner, I REALLY love baking tasty treats. I love the precision and measuring component of baking, and it always makes me think of making pumpkin bread every holiday season with my mom. A more recent association is of my best friend, who makes the best vegan treats you’ve ever had (…except those spice cookies, which would set your tongue on fire). Baking, therefore, reminds me of two of my most favorite people in the whole world AND it involves math and cute little measuring spoons and bowls! What’s not to love? Most recently, I made vegan vanilla cupcakes for Michael’s BFF’s birthday, and from all accounts they were a hit. Yay! I don’t bake as much as I’d like because there are just two of us, but once we start having people over to the house I am going to ply everyone with baked goods.

My favorite recipes:

Tequila-Lime Chicken, from Ina Garten. I omitted all the spicy stuff because I can’t really take even a hint of heat in my food, marinated it overnight, and cooked it on a grill pan: DELICIOUS! So flavorful and easy, and now that I know the magic of a meat thermometer I know my next attempt will be even better.

Penne with Beef and Arugala, from Giada de Laurentiis. This is one I’ve gone back to a few times, because it’s really easy and delicious. The arugala gives it a subtle peppery flavor, but spinach works just as well.

Parmesan Chicken, from RecipeMatcher. It’s called “Garlic Chicken” on the website, but I left out the garlic and only baked it in the oven for 20 minutes instead of 30 (I used the meat thermometer). I made it last night and served it with spaghetti and pomodoro sauce. So easy, and I know I’ll make this again soon.

Pasta al Forno, from Rachael Ray. This is one of my favorite last-minute foods to prepare (I normally leave out the prosciutto because I don’t have it on hand) and it’s SO GOOD. It tastes amazing with black olives added, if you like them. The pinch of cinnamon makes all the difference!

Nigella’s Pasta, from Nigella Lawson. Holy crap, this is awesome. Anything that has lemon zest, mushrooms, and olive oil in it automatically piques my interest, and this is so good you want to make more pasta just to sop up the extra sauce.

Man, writing about food is making me hungry! For lunch, I’m going to go put my food processor to use and make a batch of pasta with a sauteed-mushroom-black-olive-toasted-pine-nuts-grated-parmesan pesto on top. YUMMMMMMMMMMMM