From the Kitchen

So, this may surprise more than a few people, but dudes, I can cook. More than that, I like to experiment. Sometimes I fail and sometimes I surprise myself. So, from time to time I'll be dropping some recipes on these pages.

Back in high school, my friends all knew that I majorly sucked at anything even slightly resembling the domestic arts, and cooking was probably tops on that list. My mother has a picture of my first attempt at cooking oatmeal. Apparently I thought that in addition to rehydrating the oatmeal you also had to cook it down until it was re-dehydrated. It was a disaster, and a standard joke in our house.

My best friend even went so far as to buy me a copy of The I Hate to Cook Book, by Peg Bracken. Seriously. I think I cracked it open a few times, I may have even been feeling ambitious and tried a recipe or two. But I didn't take to cooking until much, much later in life.

Come to find out, The I Hate to Cook Book was quite the feminist's guide to the kitchen when it was first published back in 1960. I guess it was simply unheard of then that a woman might not enjoy cooking. Peg Bracken lived in Portland, OR and passed away October 23, 2007.

I think I still have that copy knocking around somewhere; maybe I should revisit it with new eyes. It's currently out-of-print.