Hi Everyone,

So since I have been living in an apartment this summer and am on a limited meal plan I have been cooking for myself most meals. Now, I’ve always loved playing around in the kitchen, but at home it was mostly throwing together some of Mom’s leftovers in an interesting way instead of just using the microwave. Here I’ve gotten to go shopping by myself (and realized that groceries are expensive!) , plan an entire meal, and experience food going bad because I didn’t use it soon enough (gross/bummer!).

As part of my cooking adventures I have decided to experiment with some fresh spices. I got the idea because outside of our dining hall is an herb garden that most people don’t know about! It has been mostly taken over by rosemary and mint, but there’s also some thyme, chives, and another spice I have yet to identify with my low level of expertise.

The herb garden outside of dhall.

Fresh picked rosemary, thyme, and chives

For my first exploration with fresh spices I used rosemary three days in a row. The first day I used it to pan fry chicken with olive oil and then added fresh tomato and feta cheese at the end (picture below). Unfortunately I added way too much olive oil and it got a little soupy. However, it was delicious! After that semi-success the next day I use two red potatoes I had purchased and did the same but tried to fry the potatoes with the chicken. This turned out well, but unfortunately I didn’t realize the potatoes needed to be cooked a lot longer than the chicken so they were still a bit raw when I sat down to enjoy my meal. The third night of my rosemary experiment I returned to the chicken and tomatoes with feta because it was just so delicious.

My first rosemary pan fried chicken with tomatoes and feta

After these few days of experimenting it was my birthday, and for my birthday I asked my parents to take me grocery shopping when they visited. I stocked up on some supplies and also purchased a basil plant to try my hand at growing herbs. In addition my parents brought up 3 cucumber and 3 grape tomato plants for my plot in the campus organic garden (I’ll elaborate more on that in a later post).

My basil plant (I lost one of the big stems repotting it)

And this brings me to my most recently culinary experiment. Using this recipie as a base I created a garlic chicken with egg noodles dish. I used rosemary from the herb garden to pan fry the chicken in the garlic butter sauce and added chives from the garden at the end as the recipe suggests. I also added Parmesan cheese. It turned out wonderfully. Next time I make it (and I will make it again) I will probably use more butter than olive oil to give it more of a butter taste and possibly add a bit of garlic (as I’m garlic crazy).

Garlic chicken and egg noodles

Overall I have been very satisfied by my culinary adventures so far. There is something intensly satisfying about taking the time to prepare a meal and then tasting the fruits of your success. And even if you’re not successful, you have learned an important lesson for next time.