Uh oh

Like I need a new chocolate addiction! 

I had a couple of these, then a handful, then they became dinner... 

Oh well, life is short;  gotta treat yourself once in awhile.

Learning to cook

When I lived with my parents, I wasn't allowed to cook on accounta I might make a mess in the kitchen.  I guess messy is different things to different people, but my mother was one of those over-the-top neat freaks who would have a conniption fit over things like crumbs on the counters, so experimentation in the kitchen was definitely frowned upon!  When I moved out on my own, I didn't so much cook, as practice chemistry.  It wasn't easy being a macrobiotic vegetarian in the 70's.  Remember "Diet For A Small Planet"?  That was  my bible. (And only cookbook)  I pretty much lived on steamed vegetables, brown rice and homemade yoghurt. (gag!)  Of course, as a good earth-mother-hippie-chick,  I did this very stylishly while wearing long cotton skirts and peasant blouses!   In my 20's, I survived on beer and bar snacks.  Period!  In my 30's, I was single again, but by then, microwave popcorn had been invented, (Woohoo!) so I would alternate between that and toast.  (because it's important to have a balanced diet, y'know)  When Dan & I married in 1987 he was working shift work and we seldom ate meals together - and that's just the way it was for some 20+ years.  We ate a lot of frozen or packaged convenience foods - separately! 

So finally, after 23 years, we can sit down and enjoy a meal together.  We can even entertain guests because we both have weekends off now, but unfortunately, neither us ever bothered to learn how to cook.  Umm, bit of a problem.  Sure, I now own a whole shelf full of cookbooks, (I love the IDEA of cooking) but most of them are in pristine condition - and dusty!
Luckily, we live in a technologically advanced age.  I like to browse through the Flickr group called Recipes to Share.  People there post photos of good looking dishes that they've created and they include the recipes.  Quite often, these photos lead to a blog link where there are many more wonderful photos and ideas.  One of my favourites is Cookin' Canuck's blog.  She always shows step-by-step photos and has easy to follow instructions.  Perfect for an old rookie. 
Last night's delicious barbecued salmon was made from her recipe.