I'm a cooker!

As we all know, I do not cook. Its not necessarily that I'm bad at it, I just haven't ever really tried because I don't know what to do. I don't know what goes with what, or which spices you're supposed to use, and I'm always afraid the meat will be undercooked and everyone will get salmonella poisoning.

Last week I decided that if I'm old enough to be getting married, its time for me to learn how to cook. In 9 short months I'll have a real live husband to feed, so I better start practicing! So Logan and I bought a crock-pot, and I've been cooking up a storm ever since!

The first thing I cooked was an orange pork roast. Since I was breaking in the crock-pot, I decided to take pictures along the way. (Well, and to prove to the nay-sayers that I actually did cook!) So here's the roast in the crock-pot, sitting on top of the onions and covered with the maranade ready to be cooked. This little genius invention is what made my meal taste like it was made by a gourmet chef. My crock-pot is my new best friend.

Here it is... ready to serve! It might not look that great, but the taste was wonderful. Logan said it tasted like something he'd eat at a really nice restaurant. I know you're thinking "He has to say that!", but I took leftovers to work and let several people try it. They all had similar reactions. Here is the final product. The roast was so tender that it was literally falling apart. I understand this to be a good thing. I'm still working on learning how to fix more sides other than the regular green beans and corn, but for my first time, I think it turned out well! Since the orange pork roast went over so well, I tried another new recipe. This one was lemon chicken. I really stepped it up a notch this time because I had to brown the chicken before putting it in the crock-pot. (Is it sad that I had to google how to brown chicken? Don't answer that.) Here's the browned chicken, ready to start cooking.

Feeling confident, I also made up my own salad. (I realize this isn't rocket science, but it's baby steps, people!) I got spinach leaves, cut up strawberries and kiwis and used a light rasberry vinagerette dressing. Turned out good!Ready to eat! I stepped out of my green bean comfort zone and this time made broccoli with a little parmasean cheese sprinkled on top. This meal was really good too, but the orange roast is still my favorite.

Surprisingly, I'm really enjoying cooking. And you know what? No one got salmonella poisoning either! I love how easy the crock-pot makes things. My plan is to gain more confidence with the crock-pot, and then move on to... the oven! Stay tuned...