Week 2.3 of Cooking

Welcome back guys to another exciting week of cooking!  

This week I made the decision that I wanted to cook a streak dinner.  The two things I have chosen so far have been pretty basic meals for the area we live in.  Burgers and steaks seem to be a classic choice when people order their food here.  Here is the process of how I prepared the steak dinner.

As I was starting this process my mother explained to me how important it is to try and time out each dish so that they are all ready at the same time.  If you able to do this it makes your life a lot easier and people can eat as soon as possible.  This was going great until we couldn't find a propane tank for the grill.  I had prepared the steaks and the potatoes but I couldn't go any farther until I had the propane.  Eventually, I did find some in the back garage so I was able to continue the process.  I had my mom watch the potatoes for me as they cooked so I could go outside and cook the steaks.  My dad came out with me and gave me his advice for cooking steaks.  I thought it was really funny because my dad is the kind of person who things steaks should be cooked for a certain length of time while my mom feels it is NOT a timing thing.  In the end, I went with my dad's way because he was the one with me.  After the steaks were done I finished up some green beans.

My parents both really loved the food but my mom said her steak was a little too done.  She likes her steaks pretty rare and I left hers on just a hair too long so I missed that window.   Regardless, she ate the whole thing and enjoyed the sides as well.

I think this week was very beneficial for me in the sense that I was able to use multiple resources, both my mom and my dad.  Below is a picture of the finished product! 

Week 2.2 of Cooking

Welcome back Ladies and Gents, we are now on week 2 of this cooking excursion!

As I stated last week, I am not able to cook on the week days and only have time on the weekends.  I took this into consideration and did all of my cooking on Saturday.  My mom helped me to decide what I was going to cook for my first meal.  She gave me plenty of ideas but I finally settled on burgers, homemade mac and cheese, and salad.  I had never cooked burgers prior to that point so I really enjoyed getting some experience in that area.  My mom had me use her recipe book for the homemade mac and cheese so it was pretty straight forward and simple.

The first step of the mac and cheese was to boil the noodles.  While the the noodles were boiling I was able to start making the sauce.  The sauce was a lot of fun to make didn't take that long to do.  After the noodles were cooked and the sauce was made, I combined the two and the put it in the oven while I cooked the burgers.  Making burgers doesn't require much effort at all.  Most of the work in this area is in the preparation before you even put the burgers on the pan.  Preparing a salad was the final step of this meal.  As the burgers were cooking I tore up the lettuce, cut up other vegetables and then added them all together to make the salad.

Obviously, I thought it tasted great, but that is not something I an base my success off of.  Luckily, both my mom and dad really enjoyed it.  Each of them gave me great feed back, which made me happy.  I had a lot of fun this past week and I am really looking forward to expanding on this skill. 

Below is a picture of the first meal I've cooked.

Week 2.1 of Cooking

Welcome classmates to Genius Hour 2.0!  I had a lot of fun with my first project of fly tying and I'm really excited to start my next eight week journey of cooking. 

Cooking is a skill I have always wanted to obtain.  I will be heading off to college soon and I feel being able to cook will help save me time and money, probably the two most important things in college.  My goal for this project is to have a solid understanding of cooking and be able to do it on my own so I don't have to rely on other people for my survival.  As of now, I have some basic knowledge of the topic, but I am planning to expand on it.

One tough thing I will encounter with this is finding time to cook.  I have recently started working at Walmart and I am there from 5pm-9pm on the week days.  I also won't have time right after school because I lift almost everyday during that time.  Luckily, I do not work on the weekends so I plan to use that time to do my cooking.  Saturday will more than likely be my day of choice because that's when I should have the most time.

As far as what I will be cooking, I'm not going to be very specific.  I want to be able to cook a wide variety of things so I will be leaving it pretty open.  One thing I can say I want to do is meal prep/meal plans.  With lifting, it is really important to have a good, healthy diet in order to achieve the best results.  It is recommended for a person to eat protein thirty minutes to an hour after finishing their lift to ensure maximum muscle recovery and growth.  This project will be a great tool for me in being in check with a healthy diet.  Making things like chicken, red meat, vegetables and other things will definitely be on my agenda for this diet. 

Outside of building strength, I think cooking will also benefit my family.  My parents both work long, hard days so if there is ever a night I am able to help them out and make a meal for them, I want to be able to. 

As a whole, the positives of cooking out weigh the negatives ten fold.  I am really excited to begin this process.  Stay tuned for next week!