In The Kitchen With Liana and Saskia

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Cooking

Okay, well that headline is a little bit misleading. I still do worry for pretty much the time the entire time that I’m cooking or baking. Mostly that something I make will taste atrocious or that I’ll burn down the LLC. But this week I’ve challenged myself to overcome some of my fears: using our LLC’s weird, European oven, baking with the metric system, and cooking a meal for a large group of people.

Before I lived in my LCC, I was no top chef. I knew how to scramble eggs, but I often felt so harried during the process that I would forget to add salt or pepper. I technically knew how to make pasta, but I didn’t quite know the difference between boiling and simmering water. And it took me quiet a while to learn how important it is to salt pasta water before cooking it. I could assemble a mean sandwich and I was great at chopping vegetables. And…that was about it. It’s always been my desire to gain more experience cooking, but when I’m at home my mom tends to take over the kitchen (I don’t blame her) and at school every students eats all of their meals in the dining hall. So these four months of living in the LLC, where I’ll be cooking meals 24/7 for myself, is my chance to improve. Maybe I won’t turn into a top chef, but I’d love to be able to find more confidence and ease in the kitchen.

My first couple of weeks living in Copenhagen consisted of several cooking faux pas. My first time cooking dinner was pasta with pesto, an extremely easy dish considering that the pesto was store bought, but because I was so worried about overcooking my pasta, it turned out more chewy than the al dente I had hoped for. The second dish I tried to make, grilled cheese, tore up the bread and burned the pan. (In my defense, I think this was the type of bread I was using and not my cooking techniques). I spent two hours chopping up and sauteeing vegetables for ratatouille, feeling smug, before I realized that both my brain and Google Translate had failed me at the grocery store. The tomatoes I had bought, which had translated to “ripped tomatoes”, were actually full tomatoes in their juices. I had bought one can only when the recipe called for three large cans. In a moment of panic I ran to my cabinet and threw in the only thing I could think of: tomato basil pasta sauce. Luckily, all of my food for the last three weeks has been edible. My “ratatouille” turned into an extravagant pasta sauce, I’ve only burned one pan, and I now know how to make my pasta perfectly al dente. Even my scrambled eggs skills have improved.

But I’m someone who always enjoys a challenge. I could technically spend the next four months making some variations of pasta dishes, but I would go crazy from boredom. My first attempt at baking, banana bread, came from Internet inspiration and three blackening bananas. Some of my LLC members had bought baking supplies for chocolate chip cookies the night before and I had looked up the simplest recipe I could find. After I found myself unable to concentrate on homework, I made my way over to the kitchen and stumbled through baking banana bread. When it came time for other people to taste it, I was actually shaking I was so nervous that I had somehow added to much salt or not enough sugar or that the European oven had somehow ruined my precious banana bread. But my LCC members loved it and ate it all (so quickly that I don’t even have a picture of my banana bread). A girl on my floor even said that it was the best banana bread she’d ever had! (I’m a little worried about the quality of banana bread she’s been exposed to, but I’ll take the compliment).

Fueled by banana bread success, I cooked myself a dinner of sauteed vegetables (my go-to mix of bell peppers and onions) with scrambled eggs and roasted asparagus. I had fully conquered my fears of the oven.

This week my LLC decided to have a community dinner on Wednesday night, and Liana, another member of my LLC on my floor, and I took over cooking responsibilities. (Not sure who decided we were competent, but I appreciate their belief in us). Our menu for dinner was four large quiches, roasted potatoes and mushrooms, a large salad, and chocolate chip zucchini bread with ice cream for dessert. We are all about #healthyliving and vegetables in this LLC!

Liana and I decided to start early with cooking and prepped and baked the quiches Tuesday night. To give you an idea of how much work was involved in making the quiches I’ll let you know that each quiche had 15 (!!) eggs and 4 cups of sauteed vegetables and other fillings, including mushrooms, onions, spinach, and bacon. I had luckily convinced Liana not to make our own pie crusts because I am lazy. I slept for 12 hours Tuesday night, and I really think the quiches just took everything out of me.

When it came time for dinner everything was edible and tasted pretty great! People went back for seconds and it took less than a day for the rest of the quiche to be completely eaten. Overall this was a success, and I’m hoping to have another community dinner with our LLC soon! (Although maybe for the next one, someone else can cook).

I’m excited to keep practicing and refining my cooking and baking skills throughout the semester. Fingers crossed that I won’t start any fires or forget to turn the oven off.

Happy Friday, and I’ll update you all next week after Short Study Tour and my adventures through Western Denmark!