And then this happened.

That’s right, my pantry fell apart. The wooden shelves fell while I was out, leaving the floor a gooey mess. Two bottles of pasta sauce, oatmeal, tea, olive oil, and the Gin (from our gimlets!) opened up, so the floor was coated with a gross mixture underneath the boxes of now-destroyed food.

I wasn’t happy. And needless to say, I had a frozen pizza that night.

Thankfully, I saved a good majority of of the wreckage, and only stepped on glass twice. On Sunday, my dad helped me fix the wooden shelves and install a new one, so now we have more room and less of a chance of destruction.

I have plans to cook something fabulous within the coming days. Just you wait and see.

(Sorry for the poor photo quality – the images are from my iPhone).

Earlier this year when I read The Sky is Everywhere (still one of the best books I read in 2010 – AMAZING young adult novel), I bookmarked a page that had a recipe for pesto sauce. Remembering this, I quickly grabbed the book this past Monday and decided to test out my new culinary expertise.

Once again, a few problems came up. We don’t have a food processor, nor a mortar and pestle, so instead of grounding up and processing all of the ingredients, I simply mixed them (and instead of using fresh basil leaves, I used basil seasoning). Also, we didn’t have any pine nuts, but according to research, that was okay. (I looked up similar recipes online to ensure that I wasn’t going to mess it up too much without the nuts).

While Samir cooked the chicken, I boiled spaghetti and mixed the called-for pesto ingredients in a pot over extremely low heat. Since it was quite dry, I added a bit more olive oil and my favorite when-in-doubt ingredient – butter. It usually works for baking, so I figured it would work here.

In the end my pesto chicken and pasta wasn’t that bad! I made Pillsbury garlic bread to go with it (okay, we could have made this from scratch too, but come on, I was making my own pesto sauce), which was very fluffy and nice. It was a bit dry tasting, the pasta, not nearly as creamy as I would have liked, but still – it was my first attempt.

The next day, I microwaved some leftovers and added additional olive oil and butter. To my delight, it tasted even BETTER.

I still love pesto, so I’m excited to make this again. Maybe next time with a food processor  – and the correct ingredients.

So it was kind of shocking when I really wanted to bake muffins this afternoon.

Since Samir is out of town, I didn’t want to make a huge dinner for just myself, but I still wanted to cook something. (While I do believe you can create a decadent dinner for just yourself, I’m far too lazy for such luxuries.) I went through The Recipe Club‘s recipes and came across the cranberry muffins. Perfect!

First problem came at Publix. Apparently cranberries are out of season, so they didn’t have any fresh or frozen. I opted for blueberries instead, since I really love blueberry muffins.

Next problem came when mixing the ingredients. While cooking, I had on the movie Almost Famous. I guess I was a bit distracted, because instead of putting flour into the mix…I put confectioners sugar.  I’m amazing. Thankfully, I only had two ingredients in so far, so I wasn’t too far in – and I didn’t waste too much. I hate waste.

After that, success!

I’ve made muffins before (okay, only pumpkin muffins, but still – those ARE the most delicious muffins in the world), but I was still impressed with how these came out. Honestly? Far much tastier than the ones we’ve been eating all week. They taste, well, real.

The blueberries are great, and I was especially surprised by the addition of lemon zest. It was just a bit, but it made a HUGE taste. Shocking!

I’ll definitely make this recipe again.

I’m not actually a huge fan of pot roast, but it sounded good, and Samir was really excited about it. The process was actually extremely simple. First, I cut up a bunch of vegetables.

Then, I made Samir clean and coat the beef (again – something simple, but I really don’t want to deal with raw meat quite yet).

While it cooked for OVER TWO HOURS I had enough time to catch up on My Boys. I forgot how funny that show is.

Okay – ding – it’s done!

Lovely (for meat), no?

I cant’ say it completely turned me on to pot roast, but I did enjoy it. The potatoes/onions/carrots were fantastic.

And, once again, we have enough left over for another dinner. I can’t think of any alterations I’d make to this recipe. Success!

We started watching Mad Men after the third season ended. In less then two months, we caught up on all three seasons and patiently waited for the fourth to start. Everything about the show is brilliant, from its dead-on dialogue, to its subtle progressions. I adore the period attire and quite frankly want to be Joan. Having worked in marketing before, the plot lines are really interesting to me, and – for some unfathomable reason – I’m completely in love with Don Draper. Really, who isn’t?

So I was pleased to see the recipe for Everything’s Coming Up Rose’s Lime Gimlet. We bought the ingredients earlier that day and waited patiently for the premier.

I was especially excited about the recipe due to the name – a reference to the song “Everything’s Coming Up Rose” from the musical Gypsy. Back in high school, Gypsy was the first musical I ever performed in. I loved not only the experience, but also the play; I was utterly fascinated with Gypsy Rose Lee (the stripper who defined the “strip tease”).

While just an ensemble actor during the play, I actually received a callback for the role of Young Louise. It wasn’t until later that I realized it was primarily due to my lack of singing and dancing ability. Whoops! Still, I made some of my best friends during that show, and was introduced to the high school drama world.

And to think that was almost 10 years ago…

Back to the drink – gimlets are incredibly easy to make. We don’t have a cocktail shaker (for shame!), so we substituted it with two glasses held together. That…kind of worked. I garnished each cup with a lime wedge for extra appeal.

They came out alright. A bit sour and strong for my taste, but Samir and his friend really enjoyed them. Next time I think I’m going to try it with lemon instead of lime.

Still – they were a great addition for our Mad Men night. I felt like I was in the ad room working alongside Peggy and Pete (awkward!). Next week? We’re totally dressing up.

The Recipe Club

But was I up for the challenge?

Of course I was.

After teaching a writing class at the local library, we went out and picked up the ingredients. In all honesty, I was a bit nervous. The directions were simple enough…but a chicken was clearly something I could mess up. I’ve watched my parents prepare perfect turkeys each year for Thanksgiving – I never thought i’d be ready for such a situation. Dramatic, sure, but remember – a decadent meal in my cookbook is lasagna.

We followed the recipe perfectly to get the perfect paprika glaze for the chicken. Admittedly, I made Samir clean and glaze the inside of the chicken. I was brave – but that’s just gross.

The chicken was to cook for 90 minutes, so in the meantime, I made mashed potatoes (or, as they’re called in the book, “Smashing” Smashed Potatoes”). I have made mashed potatoes in the past, but these called for different ingredients.

In the end – I’m happy to report that everything came out well! I made a roasted chicken!

Beautiful, no?

And the smashed potatoes.

I’ve learned that all recipes aren’t perfect. This one WAS extremely delicious, but I think next time we’ll add less salt to the glaze. Also, we had to cook it 10 additional minutes (but I think that’s just because our oven is terrible).

Final meal:

The mashed potatoes were fantastic. Chives were a wonderful addition. I also made corn and buttered some bread to add something extra to the meal. And, of course, we had to have wine.

All in all, successful, delicious meal that will probably last us the next eighty days or so. And to think I was scared.

I started simple with one of my favorite things in the world – egg creams. How excited was I to see it listed in the book?

Growing up on Long Island, (where they’re much better known) my dad and I would always make them on Sunday nights. Never using a recipe, we’d mix the three ingredients delicately, always adding in more chocolate than necessary. I found it odd that, upon moving to Florida, no one had heard of them. And so, as if subconsciously merging into our new surroundings, we slowly stopped making them. Or maybe I was just growing up.

Anyway, after reuniting with them in New York almost exactly a year ago, I’ve decided to bring the delicious treat back.

Plus, it’s a great way to start a cooking blog (mostly because there was no way I was messing them up.)

Thankfully, we had all of the ingredients in the house already (chocolate syrup, milk, seltzer)*.

Samir voiced his concerns: “Why are they called ‘egg creams’ anyway? There’s no egg or cream involved. They should just be called hamburger pizzas.”**

Right.

I honestly never thought there WAS an actual recipe, so I was keen to see if using measurements would improve the drink. It didn’t, really, but it was still delicious, so I didn’t mind at all.

Voila, Experimental Egg Creams!

(If making these, make sure your selzer water isn’t flat. If it is, you’ll just end up with watery chocolate milk. It’s the fizz that makes it great. Sadly, ours was a bit off.)

Samir enjoyed it too.

Yum!

And so, the first recipe was a delicious success. Now, on to bigger and better things!

*Due to copyrights, I’m not printing any of the actual recipes gathered from the novels. Those three ingredients, however, are quite obvious, so I found no harm in listing them. Here is a similar recipe, in case you’re interested.

** Because at one time there WAS egg involved! See more of the egg cream’s history here and here.

After moving in with my boyfriend, Samir, I promised to start cooking – not just for him, but for myself. I should learn how to cook. I should be able to host dinner parties with delightful meals (and not just cheese and crackers). Plus, he shouldn’t have to cook every night (since he’s – lucky enough – quite a good chef). But every time I cracked open a cook book, I got nervous. Those dishes were detailed; they weren’t catered towards novice cooks. Of course there are those “cooking for dummy” type books, but, clearly, I don’t want to stoop that low.

While i’m not great at cooking, I AM great at reading. I recently read the book The Recipe Club, which is a neat novel because intertwined in the story are recipes. Lots of them. I found myself bookmarking the recipes that were of interest to me as I went along. Today, I showed Samir (hinting that, clearly, he should cook me all of the meals I found interesting). We then had a brilliant idea.

Why not combine my desire to learn to cook with my passion for reading? Why not bring the two together? And so, The Novel Chef was born. I’m going to cook my way through novels – not cook books. It’s a new way to enjoy – and interact with – the book, and a new way for me to learn how to cook.

Let’s just hope it works.

Wish me luck!