Ewwww, Fishy.

So there are a lot of things I want to learn to do in life, and one of them is cook. My dad is a spectacular cook. He always eats things at restaurants and then goes home and recreates them perfectly (sometimes even better). And he is constantly trying out different ethnic foods so we're always sampling new tastes - Indian, Persian, Thai, Greek - you name it, he's cooked it. I can't for the life of me figure out how he comes up with such organic taste combinations, like he just intrinsically knows what goes with what. 

I hope someday that I can have that intuition and gain the ability to create my own meals that make people say, "Wow, this is restaurant quality!" But in the meantime, I've got my tiny apartment kitchen, my hand-me-down pots, pans, and dinnerware, and allrecipes.com. 

And though I'm no Giada De Laurentiis (much to my boyfriend's dismay), I am extremely proud of myself when I can follow a recipe and create a delicious dinner. Here's one I made last week - Lemon Garlic Tilapia with steamed snow peas and brown rice. Sure, it sounds impressive, but it was totally easy to make. In fact, fish is my new favorite thing to cook since it's SO simple. Throw a flavorful sauce on it, stick it in the oven for 15 minutes, and you've got a delicious, nutritious fillet that even people who don't normally like fish can enjoy. You can bet my kitchen will be filled with more of this in the future.

Ain't that a beauty? 

Baby steps, that's all it takes.