The Best Cookie in the Whole Dag gum World

 

There are precious few things in this world that I know. I know that God is real and that he loves me. I know that I will always love music. I know that 2 + 2 = 4, and I know that I make a Helluva of good Chocolate Chip Cookie! This has come from years of addiction practice. Let's face it, we all have our addictions, and mine just happens to be the amalgamation and consumption of sugars, flour, chocolate and spices into rounded lumps of caloric delight. With my highly sophisticated Chocolate Chip Cookie (3C) skills, I am able to summon people from far and yon, not unlike Ron Burgundy's keen ability to assemble his News Team. I need only speak, text or infer that Cookies will be coming out of the oven, and suddenly--as if by magic, I am surrounded.

Baking 3Cs began as a family tradition. We are large--EHEM--big-boned people who love a good cookie, and so my mom always included my brother and I in the process as we followed the recipe off the back of the Nestle Tollhouse Chocolate Chip bag. As time passed, something alarming started to happen, and was nearly a catalyst for a complete identity crisis. My younger brother, who had (supposedly) no aptitude in the kitchen, suddenly started churning out the most delicious 3C cookies in the family. I took this pretty hard, as there was only room for one "Martha" in our little clan, and that Martha was ME! I was determined to craft a cookie that would upstage him, therefore returning balance to the universe. 

During the ensuing years at College, Grad-School, and into my post-student What-the-crap-am-I-doing-with-my-life phase, I had many occasions to practice my 3C art. These cookies became a way to advertise my skills to cute boys. They were a way to tell dear friends, "I'm happy to have you over," "Thanks for letting me spend time with you," or "He was a total jerk anyway, so let's get chip-faced and watch a Meg Ryan movie." They also became currency of sorts. "I will bake you cookies if....." I have had various car repairs, home repairs, and other unpleasant tasks completed for me for the low low price of a plate of these cacao-speckled beauties. 

Now, many of you may just be bearing with me, all the while thinking, "c'mon, a 3C is just a 3C, what makes yours so special?" Well, doubting Debbie, I'm sure glad you asked! These cookies are special for 2 main reasons. 1.) The perfect marriage of spices and auxiliary ingredients and 2.) the baking time. Never EVER over-bake these cookies. I will walk you through the baking shortly, but I will say that the main reason the cookies taste so good is the gooey texture that comes from them being just slightly under-baked. There is nothing more sad than an over-baked cookie. I remember the first time a good friend saw me completely fly off the handle, and become my own domestic version of Mr. Hyde. I over-baked my cookies and friends, it was NOT pretty.

Now ye have been warned, and it's time to get down to it. Are you ready to learn how to make the Best Chocolate Chip Cookie in the whole dag gum world?  Most of the ingredients for 3Cs can be found in any moderate to well-stocked pantry, and if you don't have sugar, flour, spices and chocolate chips on hand...well then, perhaps you should take a good hard look at your pantry priorities. 

Ingredients

1 1/2    sticks of softened unsalted butter (3/4 cup)    

3/4 c.   white sugar

1 c.      packed dark brown sugar

2          eggs

1 tsp.   vanilla extract

1/4 tsp. maple flavoring 

Spoonful o' peanut butter. (I like to use creamy, but chunky is fine. You can be generous with the PB....usually my spoonful overfloweth)

2 1/2c.  flour

1 tsp.    salt (sea salt preferred)

1 tsp.    baking soda

1/8 tsp. cinnamon

dash o'  ground ginger

1 c.       oats 

1/2 bag of chocolate chip cookies (I prefer to use semisweet, but go with what you know and love. You could get really crazy and do a mix of milk chocolate, dark, semisweet, morsels, chunks, or what have you. The sky is the limit.)

Some of these ingredients, such as the white to brown sugar ratio, peanut butter, the maple flavoring, cinnamon, ginger and sea salt may seem strange to you. There is a method to my madness. The brown sugar lends a chewiness and depth to the flavor, while the maple brings caramelly richness to the cookie. Cinnamon warms everything up, while the hint of ginger brightens all the flavors. Sea Salt really brings out the chocolate. Salt does not offend me and I like to taste it in my cookies. 

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. 

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugars. For those of you with fancy kitchens, have fun using your handheld mixer and/or kitchen aid. I prefer to hand mix everything with a giant wooden spoon. It reminds me of my college dorm-room days and makes me feel just that much more badass. 

Add the eggs and extracts, mixing everything well. Mix in the peanut butter, and get ready to incorporate the dry ingredients. 

In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, spices, salt, and baking soda. Add this slowly to the wet ingredients. 

Once everything is well incorporated, add the oats, and mix well. Now stir in the chocolate chips, and you are ready to bake!

Using whatever method works for you, (I like using 2 spoons,) drop the cookies onto an UN-greased baking sheet. Try to keep them uniform in size to facillitate even baking. 

Now pop them in the oven for 8-10 minutes, and HEY! Where are you going? Don't you EVEN think of leaving the kitchen at this point! Too often I have made the mistake of going about my daily life, blithely forgetting about the poor innocent cookies that may be over-baking, due to my negligence. The timer may still say that they have a few more minutes, but you need to keep an eye on them! Every oven cooks differently, and it would be a shame to ruin a good batch of cookies. You will know the cookies are done when they are just set. What does that mean? Well, when they are no longer shiny on top, and are just starting to turn a light golden (not brown) on the sides. If they fit this description, get them out of the oven, and let them finish baking for 2 minutes on the sheet. Then, you may remove them from the baking sheet and transfer the 3Cs to a wire rack or plate, or--let's be honest, your mouth. More cookies than I care to admit take a fatal detour right from the baking sheet to my mouth, and never get to experience life on the cooling rack. 

And there you have it. I stand by this recipe, and I would encourage any of my friends out there who have tasted these droplets of heaven to post testimonials below. Happy Baking!

All the Single Ladies or The Way to a Man's Heart

Listen up, ladies. I am here to dispel the myth that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. Bullpucky! If that were true, I wouldn't be on a slow crawl towards spinsterhood, having "how was your day" conversations with my cat! Neither homemade pizzas, (dough & all,) brownies from scratch, rich chocolate ganaches, hand-dipped & rolled chocolate-nut pretzels, steak stir-fries, hundreds of cookies, cinnamon rolls, elaborate cakes, picnics, lasagnas, countless pastas, BBQ, peach pies or dozens of apple crisps have successfully paved the way to any man's heart that I've had the pleasure (or displeasure) of knowing.

Perhaps back in the proverbial day, before the take-over of fast, cheap and nutrition-less food, when traditional gender roles weren't considered misogynistic and primitive, it was an extremely valuable and attractive skill for a woman to produce a delicious haiku-worthy meal.

Man brings home the meat.

Woman prepares meat for all.

Tasty, Happy, Full.

Not so today. Now it's a novelty for one to prepare and cook the majority of their meals, and while appreciated as such, men need not look to women to be caretakers of their family's food health--not when Wendy, Mr. McDonald, Marie Callender or Bob Evans are happy to step into that role. 

Yet, even suspecting the truth of the plummeting value of mad kitchen skillz in young women, I still thought mine might aid in attracting that seemingly mythical creature: the worthwhile male. Like a frustrated explorer trying to find the elusive Northwest passage, I have attempted to cook, bake, and saute my way to a man's heart and have found that it is not through his stomach. (As a side note, if any of my sisters out there have found the way to a man's heart, contact me immediately with the directions!)

I learned that with every carefully crafted treat or meal, I was giving a piece of my affection and self to that person, which only made me feel more empty when the relationship ended. I'm not trying to draw a direct correlation between delicious meals and the fast-track to Dumpsville, but what I would like to share from my experience with the short end of the relationship stick(s) is this: pace yourself.

Really--pace yourself ladies. This goes for any kind of favor or token of your affection, from your time to your money to gifts and physical expressions. There is an appropriate pace to everything and most would agree that too much too soon is just too much. A diamond necklace on the second date, for example, would be inappropriate. Showing up to the door in lingerie for a first date would be considered by most I hope as inappropriate. 

Why, you may ask, should we care about pacing? Why not fully express how we feel in the moment? Because, friends, I have observed that healthy relationships demonstrate balance between the levels of investment in each other and in the relationship between both parties. This does not imply a petty tit for tat or you-scratch-my-back-I'll-scratch-yours mentality. I am speaking of appropriately balanced levels of investment between each other at every stage of the relationship. When there is a dramatic imbalance, the  result is a one-sided relationship, and for anyone who has experienced this lopsided love, it's incredibly painful. No one wants to be the only one making efforts.

What does this have to do with food? Well, I would simply suggest that we pace ourselves in the kitchen as well. Save those truly gourmet or labor-intensive dishes for a man who has earned your trust and shown by his actions (not pretty words alone) that he is captivated by you, and is in it for the long haul. Save the really good stuff for someone who's invested in the adventure of getting to know you in all your glory and especially in your non-glory. As for the others--make something nice, hinting at your skillz, but don't pull out all the stops just yet. 

Something from Nothing

If you’re anything like me, you may go through occasional Mother Hubbard cycles, in which the contents of your refrigerator may include some moldy cheese, furry vegetables, an egg, and condiments. I have a pretty busy schedule balancing multiple jobs and traveling for gigs and auditions, so I may go weeks between major grocery runs, and I will use every last grain or canned good in my pantry before making the trek to the store. If you are also like me, you may occasionally play the I-don’t-have-money-for-groceries-until-next-week-so-I-need-to-get-creative-this-week game. I guess we can choose to be bummed out by our financial and/or food supply limitations, or we can use them to bulk up our resourcefulness and creativity muscles.

That is exactly the approach I used recently when I took stock of all the "nothing" I had in my possession and decided to turn it into something. Preferably something delicious.

Here's what I came up with:

• 2 small yams purchased weeks (maybe months <yikes>) ago. They had no growths or discolorations and still looked and smelled fine... so I declared them usable
• 1/2 a block (log? Roll?) of Goetta, which I can only describe as Cincinnati's Haggis. I classify it as such, because it is essentially meat pieces ground together with spices and oats and smells a bit like high-end cat food when raw. I know I'm not selling you on this, but take my word for it---when fried to a golden crisp on the outside and a flavorful--slightly creamy deliciousness on the inside, it's dang good! This particular bit of Goetta was at least a week old and needed to be eaten NOW.
• Milk
• A few measly tablespoons of grated Parmesan
• Butter
• The usual pantry goods (flour, salt, pepper, etc...)
• Fresh herbs from my porch garden

Summer always brings pleasant memories of traveling, and for the past few weeks, I've been having nostalgic flashbacks to time spent in Tuscany a few years ago. It was on that particular trip that I discovered gnocchi (neh-yo-kee)--an Italian potato dumpling of mouthwatering proportions. So, weighing my options, I had potatoes, flour and the makings of a tasty sauce. Gnocchi was on like donkey kong.

In my search for a good basic sweet potato Gnocchi recipe, I ended up using one from my homegirl Giada's collection. It called for:

2 lbs. sweet potatoes
2/3 cup whole milk ricotta cheese
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. feshly ground black pepper
1 1/4 c. flour, plus 1/3 c. for work surface

Let's just pause to talk about using recipes as a suggestion rather than the gospel truth. I did not have 2 lbs. of sweet potatoes (I had two, remember?). I did not have ricotta cheese or anything of it's kind to substitute--so I used an egg to bind the ingredients. Here was a stunning example of synthesizing recipes. I've never made gnocchi, but after reading other recipes, I had a pretty good idea of how it should all come together and I wasn't stressed out that mine would be ricotta free. The sauce I was making would also take a more savory approach, so I would be foregoing the cinnamon today.

The basic gist of making gnocchi seemed simple enough: 1.) cook the taters. 2.) Mash and mix w/ flour, spices and egg. 3.) Form into little dumplings 4.) boil to cook. 


For the sauce, I would pull out a tried and true standard, using a cream base, flavored and calorically enhanced with goetta. Ok, game on.

Sweet Potato Gnocchi

Ingredients
2 shriveled sweet potatoes (or yams)
1-1 1/2 cups flour
1 egg
sea salt and pepper to taste
dash of cayenne and paprika


Making it Happen
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.


Give the potatoes a few good jabs with a fork all over. (This will prevent them from exploding in the oven.) Place on a baking sheet, stick in the oven, and if you live in a hot and humid apartment, get out---it's only going to get worse with the oven on. Without air conditioning in my top-floor apartment, on a scale of bearable to ridiculously hot, I was a mere hot flash away from ridiculous. So, while the potatoes baked alive, I enjoyed a cool breeze and a good book outside. 

Once they have cooked for about an hour, turn off the oven and let them cool off. The flesh should be soft and easy to scoop out with a spoon.

In a mixing bowl, mash up the flesh, adding the egg and spices. Mix well.


Starting with 1/2 cup, begin incorporating the flour and adding more, little by little until a dough begins to form. Depending on how much potato flesh you have and how big the egg is, this amount will vary. The dough should be soft but not too sticky. Set a big pot of salted water on to boil.


Divide the dough into 3 balls and roll them into logs about 1/2" in diameter. Pinch off 1" long segments and roll into an oval, then roll over the tines of a fork. This creates a nice gnocchi look. Set them aside until you are ready to cook them. 


Tip: If you made more gnocchi than you anticipate wanting to eat in the immediate future, you can freeze them at this stage.


When water is boiling, drop the gnocchi in. They will float to the surface when done--how convenient! It should take 2-4 minutes.

Goetta Cream Sauce

Ingredients
Goetta sliced in 1/4" coins
2-3 Tbl. Butter
1 tsp. flour
1/4+ cup of milk and/or cream

Fresh herbs (Rosemary and/or Basil recommended)
Salt and pepper to taste


Make it Happen
Heat a skillet and place the Goetta slices in the center. Let them cook 4-6 minutes on each side. There should be a nice deep brown crisp before flipping a slice over. Be patient and let the heat do the work. 


Once the Goetta is crispy on the outside and cooked through, move it to the side of the pan. 


Add the butter. (Don't be alarmed, Goetta doesn't release a lot of fat the way bacon does. Your arteries will be just fine.)


When butter has melted, sprinkle the flour over the butter and stir, cooking the roux for at least a minute. A roux is the base for most cream sauces and soups, and consists of flour cooked in fat, which, when added to milk, functions as a thickening agent. 


Add the milk, stirring and breaking up the goetta. Keeping the heat at a simmer, gently stir the sauce until it thickens a bit. Add salt and pepper to taste. (Hint: the goetta is pretty salty on it's own...keep that in mind before you go salt crazy.)


When the gnocchi are done, use a slotted spoon to transfer them into the sauce pan. Turn off the heat, add the Parmesan, and stir. Throw on some finely chopped rosemary and basil and give a good stir to incorporate. Serve and enjoy!

Feed Your Friends

            Some dear friends of mine are moving away from this little corner of Ohio to begin an exciting new chapter, so I invited them over for dinner before the migration. They are both vegetarians, and the weather was finally acting like spring, so I wanted to cook something fresh, vegetable-y, light and able to say, “I’m really gonna miss you guys!”

            I had recently discovered my local farmer’s market and after chatting it up with some of the farmers and learning just what exactly green garlic was, I came home—feeling like a total Yuppie—triumphantly toting fresh spring greens, green onions, green garlic, mint and basil plants, butter lettuce and other various and sundry farm treasures. We were going to have a heck of a salad!

Tip: Fresh herbs add depth and brightness to any salad, taking it from rabbit-food to gourmet. Mix up your greens using a variety of lettuces and spring greens. Green garlic (essentially a young garlic plant) has a subtler flavor and when used sparingly won’t overpower the salad. If you have fresh mint, basil, lemon verbena, lemon balm, or thyme, chop ‘em up and throw them in!

            For the main course, I went to one of my favorite mistresses of the kitchen, Giada de Laurentiis, 

for a bright, flavorful, (and meatless) pasta 

that wouldn’t require a lot of ingredients. Obviously, fresh store-bought or dried pasta would work beautifully in this recipe, but I was really going to miss these friends, and I wanted them to know it by going the extra mile with homemade pasta. OK, OK…. I also wanted to show off a bit.

Now at the words “homemade pasta,” I may have lost some of you readers, but just bear with me. You don’t need a pasta machine, an Italian grandmother or any kind of Tuscan voodoo to make homemade noodles. The process is remarkably simple, (if not labor and time intensive) to do. But everything worthwhile is worth working for, right? (Hint: the answer is YES!)

            Armed with a few past successes in pasta making and a new recipe to go on, I set about my task with vigor. Everything turned out beautifully---enjoy!

Lemon Spaghetti (pg. 87 in Everyday Italian)

-Blue reflects my own adjustments and opinions

Ingredients

2/3 cup olive oil

2/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese  (store-bought is just fine--- and these amounts aren’t written in stone. Use what you have.)

½ cup fresh lemon juice (from about 2 lemons)

¾ tsp. (sea) salt, plus more to taste  (haven’t learned the beauty of sea salt? Get on that train! It’s delicious!)

½ tsp. freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste

1 lb. dried spaghetti  (or enough fresh pasta to serve your guests*)

1 Tbl. Grated lemon zest (from about 2 lemons)

1/3 cup chopped fresh basil (again, use what you have. If you just have a few leaves, throw that in and don’t worry about it.)

Tip: To chop basil and other fresh herb leaves, wash and dry (or gently wipe with a damp cloth) and layer the leaves on top of each other. Starting with the narrow end of the leaf, roll the layers into a log shape. Using a sharp knife cut thin strips on the diagonal. This will yield lovely green strips rather than the battered and bruised remnants you will get if you attempt to dice the leaves.

Making it Happen

First wash and gently roll the lemons on a tabletop. (This loosens things up, allowing them to yield more juice.) Zest the lemons. If you don’t have a zester, use a cheese grater. Zest only the yellow skin, NOT the white pith—it’s bitter and nasty.

In a large bowl, whisk the oil, Parmesan cheese, lemon juice, ¾ tsp. of salt, and ½ tsp. of pepper to blend. Set the lemon sauce aside. (The sauce can be made up to 8 hours ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Bring to room temperature before using.)

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the spaghetti (or fresh pasta*) and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender but still firm to the bite, about 8 minutes. Drain, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid. Add the spaghetti to the lemon sauce, and toss with the basil and lemon zest. Toss the pasta with enough reserved cooking liquid to moisten. (You really won’t need much.) Season the pasta with more salt and pepper to taste and more cheese, because you really can’t get enough of that tangy cultured goodness! Transfer to bowls or serving platter and serve.

*Fresh “Pasta al’ Uovo”

Tip: Whenever I have a hankering to try something new, I head to the interwebs for inspiration and a good basic recipe. I like to visit different sites and peruse three or four similar recipes, taking care to read the reviews about them. Is this an approachable recipe? Is the overall review good or bad? Compare the recipes to each other and see what elements they share and how they differ. What seems to be the basic gist of the recipe? Which recipe incorporates ingredients that you already have on hand? Once you’ve surveyed the various options, choose one to be your basic recipe and then synthesize your own version, pulling in the best bits from the others.

For the fresh pasta, I used this basic recipe, following it pretty closely.

Ingredients (for 3-4 servings)

1 ½ cups flour

2 eggs (I used 3 eggs for a richer and more filling pasta)

½ tsp. sea salt

¾ Tbl. olive oil

¾ Tbl. lukewarm water

Making it Happen

Place the flour on a large floured surface. Yes, really, ON the table, not in a bowl…so you might want to clean off the surface of any various & sundry food scraps and cat hair.

Make a well in the center and break the eggs into the well.

Add the salt, oil and water, beating the mixture in the well with a fork. Once mixed, gently start to work the flour into the liquid with the fork.

Continue until the dough becomes sticky and difficult to work with.

Lightly flour your hands, and use them to form the dough into a rough ball.

Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface.

Knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes.

Unlike pie dough, pasta dough loves to be manhandled. So if you’ve had a rough week, reward yourself with some cathartic dough abuse…but remember, kneading is meant to form gluten, not press the life out of the dough. Apply a firm hand and simply fold the dough in and over itself again & again. (and again, and again...)

Whew! What a workout for you and the dough. Give yourselves both a rest. 10-60 minutes will do (or however long it takes to watch your favorite “story” on Netflix).

Right before returning to work with the dough, now would be a good time to light a fire up under a large pot of salted water.

Ok, Now that you & dough have both had a good rest, lightly flour your work surface, rolling pin (or bottle,) and your hands. Give the dough a few more kneads to wake it up and divide into Thirds. Prepare thyself for the rolling!

Tip: Your best pastry tool may be in your refrigerator. A smooth-sided wine or glass water bottle will do if you don’t have a rolling pin. I have also found that when these bottles are filled with cold liquid, it gives nice weight for rolling out the dough. And when working with sticky dough or in a hot kitchen, (or both—poor thing,) the cool water in the bottle cools down the dough and makes it easier to manage.

Working with 1/3 of the dough at a time:

-Roll into a square or rectangle, then fold in half and roll out again. (Repeat 2-4 times)

-Roll out a rectangle as thin as you can.

-Take a sharp knife, dip the tip in flour and cut very thin strips. Perhaps 1/8”-1/4”.

-When cut, swirl the strips in flour to coat (this prevents them from forming a pasta glob,) and set them aside until ready to cook.

Repeat with the other two balls of dough.

Tip: Using too much pressure in rolling will make the dough stick to the table, the rolling pin, or both. Be firm, but not heavy-handed. Keep the surface under the dough & the rolling pin lightly floured.

Once all your pasta has been cut into strips, and the water is boiling away happily, drop the lot into the water and give it a brief stir to make sure the pasta doesn’t clump together. Cook 5-8 minutes until done, but still firm (al dente.) Ta DA!

Reclaiming Our Place in the Kitchen

Ok now modern women everywhere—before you go getting your panties in a twist and limbering up your fingers to type out a scathing reply to my seemingly anti-feminist blog entry---why don’t you just take a step back and breathe. Better? Allow me to define who we are, and why we need to reclaim our place in the kitchen. I’m not just talking about women—but you’re not off the hook ladies, I am most definitely talking to you. But in a broader sense, we are the creative, the young professionals, the singles, the nostalgic who yearn after food “like mom used to make,” the financially challenged, the economically minded. We are those who want to create a homier and healthier home, and those who just love witnessing the miracle of non-palatable ingredients coming together to form culinary delights to tempt our tongues and noses. We want to do things for ourselves, and want to take responsibility for what goes in our bodies, and so I urge us to get back in the kitchen.

            Naturally, as a young professional woman in her mid-20’s, most of my experience will speak to that same demographic, but young, old, male, female, red, yellow, black or white, we all need to eat, and I propose that we all learn how to feed our own dang selves!

            Why, you ask? Well, here’s a reason that will resonate with anyone living in our current economy: it’s cheaper! Even if you buy local and/or organic (which I highly recommend---more on that in the future,) it is less expensive than compulsively eating out. Believe me, with student loans from two institutions of higher learning and low-paying jobs, I know how to stretch a buck. I will allow that setting up a well-stocked pantry can initially stretch the wallet, but it begins to pay off as soon as you start cooking with those ingredients. AND, as skills increase, one can learn the art of substitution—trading more expensive ingredients in a recipe for less expensive or seasonal ones.

            Now, I’m sure the devil’s advocates among you will say that eating out at Wendy’s or McDonalds is definitely cheaper than cooking in. Ok, that may be so on a basic monetary level, but exactly what kind of compromises are you making for the “cheaper” food? Two fantastic books have recently crossed my literary path, and I highly recommend them to anyone who loves food and wants to learn about where it comes from. Michael Pollan’s  The Omnivore’s Dilemma and Barbara Kingsolver’s  Animal Vegetable Miracle. In her book, Kingsolver has this to say about fast food:

Nobody should need science to prove the obvious, but plenty of studies do show that regularly eating cheaply produced fast food and processed snack foods slaps on extra pounds that increase the risks of diabetes, cardiovascular harm, joint problems, and many cancers. As a country we’re officially over the top: the majority of our food dollars buy those cheap calories, and most of our citizens are medically compromised by weight and inactivity. The incidence of obesity-associated diabetes has more than doubled since 1990, with children the fastest-growing class of victims.

            If taking care of your health doesn’t convince you, (and it should,) here’s another great reason to get back in the kitchen: it connects people! Some of my best memories are of preparing and/or sharing meals with friends and family. It is an act of friendship and a loving service to cook or bake for someone, and it’s a great way to show off your skillz! Cooking conveys thoughtfulness and meets two basic human needs: to eat/be fed, and to care/be cared for. It’s the backbone of the lost art of hospitality—something we have let fall by the wayside in American culture.

            Finally, I must confess that one of my motivations for feeding myself is the pride I feel in accomplishing something functional and creative. When you pull bubbly fragrant lasagna out of the oven, you can have the satisfaction of thinking, (or proclaiming aloud to your cat,) HECK YES! I made that! It almost makes you want to pull a Ron Burgundy and demand, “Hey everybody! Come see how good this looks!”

            So ladies, dudes, all transient twenty-somethings looking to carve out some sort of “home” in our small city dwellings—everybody—don your aprons, invite over some friends, reclaim your place in the kitchen, and learn how to feed yourselves!