Cooking for One
I've been living in a place with pretty minimal kitchen resources this month, and being used to sturdy nice things at home, I pouted a bit. Then I decided that the best pan here was the 10-inch skillet-- spun aluminum, heavy bottom, rubberized handle-- and have been sauteeing or frying about every meal since. The other advantages to this habit is that it makes it easy to portion for one: only put things you want to eat now in the pan, unless you want leftovers, and that it lets me use one pan to get dinner on the table in about 15 minutes, regardless of what I'm eating. Fish, pan-fried, with squash: toss everything in salt, pepper, and oil, brown each side, toss around the veggies, done. Chicken, pan-fried with mushrooms and arugula: toss everything in salt, pepper and oil, brown both sides, stir the veggies; toss in some chopped basil and garlic, cover 5 minutes until chicken is done. Eat. And so on. Sometimes I'll boil pasta or rice to go with, but mostly I've just had some bread. And I've successfully made my own dinner very night that I haven't had plans to go out, without resorting to instant food or delivery, which I'm pretty pleased with. I've never actually cooked just for me for more than a day or two at a time, and it has been an interesting adventure. Now that I'm getting used to it, though, I'll be back to spousal-food-prep in just a few days!