Cooking lessons :)

I am by no means a master chef, but I do really enjoy cooking even though I don't do it very much right now. So when Josh came up with this genius idea to receive cooking lessons from me I jumped on the cooking lesson train CHOO-CHOO!! (really how could I not? Every cooking success he has from now on I can somehow magically credit back to me!) So the fun begins..

His first lesson he came over to my place and he picked a recipe out of one of my favorite cookbooks, The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook! (if your not sure how to cook, or just need some really great new recipes that are super easy, pick up this book you will love it!) So lesson one began with chicken fajitas and they turned out amazing!! I think we kinda went all in for round one but Josh really took to the cooking like a champ (its not to hard) Before he knew it he was dicing onions, chopping bell peppers, cutting chicken into strips, becoming familiar with some seasonings he had never before heard of and sauteing everything in a skillet! Throw a few corn tortillas in the microwave and you've got yourself a delicious chicken fajita party ready to go!

It's a really bad picture but you get the idea!

Lesson two we were on to bigger and better things, PASTA!! I ate dinner at a friends house once and she made the most amazing pasta all out of her microwave! It was incredible, and easy! (thank you Emily Logan!) So I figured what a perfect thing to teach a young college student who may or may not have a stove in the future (or even if he did, may not use it..) how to make something super yummy with just a microwave and a couple of easy to find ingredients.

At this point Josh is already getting the hang of things pretty well, we did a lot of measuring with this recipe and kinda added our own touches here and there. Since we were having pasta we decided to add some bread sticks to our meal, but we are not ready for the big leagues quite yet so we went Pillsbury dough boy and taught Josh how to use the oven :) The pasta turned out delicious and my mom was grateful for a cooking night off!!

Josh, getting a little creative with how much chicken he wanted to add :)

Thumbs up to a great & easy meal!!

It has been so much fun getting together with Josh over the past couple of weeks, it is something that we are going to try to do once a week with each other alternating whose house we go to. I know that it is bringing us closer together, and building a lifelong bond between us. It is a wonderful tradition that I hope we will be able to keep going through the years..

 

Can't wait for next week's lesson :)