4) Cooking

I freaking love food. It’s one of the best things ever. One cannot persuade me otherwise.

Growing up, I had a stay-at-home mom who often cooked homemade food. She would often cook dinner. T’would vary between steak and eggs, waffles and ice cream, haystacks, macaroni and cheese, and many other delicious, delightful meals. From this originated my love of food. In addition to meals my mother cooked, she wanted us to be independent, so she taught us how to cook.

I enjoyed learning how to cook as I grew up. Each member of my family was assigned an evening to cook dinner. My favorite meal of the day was and still is breakfast. It was my destiny to become a professional at cooking breakfast related foods. I would often cook pancakes for dinner, but when I was feeling particularly fancy I would cook plain ol’ eggs! Nonetheless, I considered myself a professional chef.

Okay, so maybe professional isn’t the correct term. Maybe I am more of a chef extraordinaire. Alright alright, the most appropriate term is extra ordinary.

Just a couple weeks ago, I felt the desire to make some good old fashioned macaroni and cheese in a pot. I filled the pot with water, turned up the heat, and loaded the macaroni. I was rather famished, so I used the whole box. Once the water had boiled, and the macaroni had cooked, I added the butter. Mind you, I added a bunch of butter, because, ya know, it’s butter. Who doesn’t love butter? I shredded some pepperjack cheese and added it to the macaroni along with salt, pepper, milk, and crushed red pepper for some wonderful spice. I mixed it all together while still in the pot. I stirred for several minutes in order to get the cheese to smoothly mix with the macaroni. It was to my amazement when the cheese clumped up and failed to mix with the macaroni. In quite a stupor, I asked my mother for advice as to why the two foods weren’t mixing. It was at this point that I was informed, “Jefferson, you have to strain the water out once the macaroni has cooked.” Aaaaand that’s when I felt underpar at being chef extraordinaire.

So there is my experience at being an extra ordinary cook. I can do a lot of the simple things like making a PB&J sandwich, but don’t ask me to make some homemade mac and cheese cause that won’t happen anytime soon.