Learning to Cook: Episode 1

Alternate title: Miserable Failure Number 1.

I decided to start cooking not because I have any skill in that area, but because I hope to one day have a husband, and everyone knows that men love to eat. And, because I believe that even a miserable cook like myself can become a good cook with enough determination and practice. (And maybe cooking lessons.)

I picked a recipe for Chicken Florentine from this Campbell's recipe book. It's kind of like a child's board book: made of cardboard, and there's a picture of every ingredient just in case you're a poor reader. Looked like a book for me!

This recipe was supposed to take 35 minutes to make. It took me an hour and a half. Not that that's unusual. In fact, if you look at the very fine print beneath every cooking time, it says "if your name is Allie, add one hour." I use that extra time to ponder deeply everything I don't know about cooking so that I can make the best guess.

Here's what I assumed about this recipe:
1) It calls for four pieces of chicken, but I only have one, so that's enough.
2) It takes 14 minutes to thaw four pieces of chicken in the microwave, so I can heat one piece for that long too.
3) It calls for Cream of Mushroom with Roasted Garlic soup, but I only have regular Cream of Mushroom, so I can just add some garlic.
4) It calls for diced tomatoes with basil and oregano, but I don't have that, so I can use Rotel.
5) It calls for Penne pasta, but I like fettuccine better, so I can use that.
6) It doesn't say if I should cook the spinach, but it's frozen. I can just heat it up in the microwave.

This is what that one piece of chicken looked like fourteen minutes after I put it in the microwave to thaw out:

Yes, that is an alien growing on the right hand side. O.o

Now, mind you, the chicken was supposed to bake, not cook in the microwave...but I cut off everything that looked nasty, chopped it up, and put it in the sauce.

Next I added the microwaved spinach. It looked and smelled exactly like freshly cut grass, and I didn't feel right putting it into the sauce. I felt somewhat like a kid making mud pies...

Anyway, mix together mushroom soup, tomatoes, spinach, and noodles, bake it for 20 minutes, add mozzarella cheese, bake ten more minutes and you get something that looks like this:

It really wasn't that bad. I thought it had too much spinach, but my Dad ate it for lunch, and I think he actually liked it. We'll see what mom thinks later today.

Well, there's my cooking adventure for the day. Tomorrow is my 19th birthday, and the family is coming over. Mom is making lasagna, and I'll be making fettuccine alfredo and cheese biscuits to go along with it. Speaking of the cheese biscuits...they are wonderful, and so easy. Even I can't mess them up!

Here's the recipe:

2 cups Bisquick
2/3 cup milk
1/2 cup cheese (or more...)
2 tablespoons butter
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder (or whatever form of garlic you like)

Mix together Bisquick, milk and cheese. Place 9 spoonfuls on a cookie sheet and bake at 450 for 10 minutes. Melt the butter and add the garlic to it. Brush this mixture over the biscuits when they are done. That's all!  ; D