The Best Lunch is a Home-Made Lunch

I decided to start my new job off right by eating healthy. Being that the majority of my time would be spent in an office sitting on my behind, I figured it'd be best for me not to get that lovely physique so common in the office place. So of course I was searching through Real Simple magazine and found an awesome lunch. It's a pasta salad. Here are the ingredients: gemelli pasta, grape tomatoes(halved), fresh cubed mozzarella, spinach and salami. Then you make a simple dressing with olive oil, white wine vinegar, salt and pepper. Let's just say that I was sitting here on my break and decided to blog about it. Another lesson I learned in my quest for starting my new job off right: simple is better! This applies to food and life (duh!). That pasta salad was D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S! If you want the recipe let me know!
Question for those who actually read this: Any suggestions for lunch time meals? What have you learned about food?

Cafe Au Lait Chessecake

This just proves that involved desserts are possible! It was delicous(and deemed so by my family and friends). I now have now agreed to make one for the service group on Friday...what have I gotten myself into!? This was a day when I was stressed about a job and really needed an involved dessert to keep me busy. This defnitely helped! Who needs the Cheesecake Factory!?

Unemployment breeds a cooking machine!

I grew up spoiled in the arena of cooking. I learned different things and helped out here and there(mostly by stealing cheese and eating it off the cutting board), but I had never developed the desire to cook. I attribute this to many things, one being that my mother is an amazing cook and always was cooking for our family. So I never had to cook, and being spoiled like that usually does not create a desire to cook anyway, when you have someone doing it for you. As I grew older, I suddenly realized that I had no store of knowledge when it came to cooking, granted I could whip up a recipe if I felt like it, but I had nothing memorized. Major faux pas in my family! And then came...dun dun dun(insert scary music)...unemployment! Suddenly I had much more time on my hands and it was not about to get better for many months. So my schedule consisted of service, cleaning, looking for jobs, and my old fall-back, baking! I love baking so much so that I can feel happiness well up in my heart when I smell cinnamon, nutmeg and the sound of a hand-mixer. Baking is one thing I have always been able to do. I began with creating giant cookies with a hodge-podge of ingredients. They garnered much praise from my family whom I often use as taste-testers. I soon became hooked...or obsessed as my mother noted a few weeks into unemployment. I pulled out old Better Homes and Gardens cookbooks that were dusty in the back of our cabinet and discovered Banana Drop Cookies with Banana Frosting. Before I even had the batch frosted my brother came home and devoured 6 of them! I now have requests for more. Then it was a Cafe au Lait cheesecake. Decadent and rich, I even went so far as to garnish it with coffee cups and sauces made out of chocolate.
Then....came the cooking part. Being that I would be home before everyone else, I suddenly developed the desire to cook for them all. I must say this was shocking to much of my family. Soon though they were not shocked as they tried and actually enjoyed my creations. I have even been honored with our family recipe for Spaghetti and Meatballs. As I was making this dish I suddenly realized that I was a goner. As I heard the crackle and pop of sauteeing onions and garlic, inhaled the glorious scent I became addicted to cooking. "Finally!" My mother would say as I began exhibiting that I was part of our family gene pool. So this blog is really a take it or leave it. It is more for myself, things I have learned about cooking and what it really does do for my soul...yes my soul. It is cheesy to say that, but when I am stressed out, happy, depressed or just plain ol' bored(which is not often) I can always find a stick of butter, flour, eggs and sugar and make something wonderful. Or start sauteeing garlic, cutting pears and apples for a dessert and immediately all care and worry melts away. I am literally transported, at one with my thoughts and the task at hand. It's amazing what I can work out in my mind while I am preparing something. So I hope you enjoy reading this and if not, I really don't care. I say that with love. Next I'll post some more insights and recent explorations into food, cooking and my favorite...baking. :D Bye for now!