One of my coping mechanisms, when I'm having a bad week (or two, or three...), is cooking. I'm actually not that great of a cook. But, with my Barefoot Contessa cookbook in hand, and allrecipes.com at my fingertips, I'm making some winner meals lately.

So far this week, we've had:

Homemade Chicken Noodle soup (broth made from the carcass and everything, yah baby!)
Borecole & Sausage (spelling?) I made my Dutch husband proud
Chicken Stew with Biscuits- Thankyou Barefoot Contessa. One of Nich's favourites.

And tonight.... Balsamic Roasted Pork Loin with Roasted Winter Vegetables on the side.

I am not a very talented cook at all, but I know how to follow a recipe. I remember one of my first cooking experiences in my first apartment:

I was making Tater-tot casserole, and couldn't figure out if I would need to brown the ground beef before putting it in the casserole dish. Surely the oven would cook it, right? Fortunately, my friend set me straight, and we ate a thoroughly cooked meal. But, really, I was SO clueless. Once I even kept the plastic cover on one of my roommates casserole dishes while it was cooking in the oven, because the recipe said to bake it 'covered'. And, yes, it totally melted. All down the sides of the casserole dish, and into the oven.

I've come a long way. There used to be a lot of tears and frustration in the kitchen. But, now that I know the basics, I'm pretty grateful that I can pull of a fine-tasting meal for dinner (well, most of the time...).