For me, living in an apartment for the first time can also be equated with cooking for the first time. Only now can I begin to fathom the amount of time and effort my mother puts into cooking meals for the family on an almost-nightly basis (respect!). While my "cooking" is nowhere near being on the scale of hers (obviously I'm only cooking for myself, and I'm certainly not at her level when it comes to expertise, capability, and complexity), I find it to be a daunting task nonetheless. I quickly realized why my diet when at home (on the weekends or over breaks) consists almost entirely of cereal, aside from the dinner that is prepared for me.
Before I continue, I'd like to clarify what I'm actually referring to when I use the term "cooking". Basically, all I've "cooked" thus far has been eggs, sandwiches, and pasta, no different from anything I've made before. While this doesn't sound like much of an accomplishment, especially since I already knew how to "cook" the aforementioned "dishes", as each day passes I'm able to add some personal touches to each, given what little I have to work with. "Eggs" become eggs cooked in Salsa Brava, with diced tomatoes, green olives, and swiss/gouda cheese. "Sandwiches" become peanut butter and banana/cooked apple on wheat, or turkey/fried salmon, tomato, spinach, and swiss cheese on a fried baguette. "Pasta" becomes tortellini with fresh diced tomatoes, olive oil, spinach leaves, and chopped dates. I can only expect that this trend of experimentation will continue.
As you can see, most of my meals consist of the same basic ingredients, but with the amount of fresh fruit, veggies, and spices available nearby, I'm hoping this list will expand. I haven't gotten much meat yet, as we have a strange oven (it doesn't tell you degrees for temperature, only numbers 1-6), so I don't want to mess around with that just yet. Luckily the Pakistani and Arab neighborhoods are stocked with Halal Butcher Shops, so I hope this will change soon.
Sorry for being so boring, but since a lot of folks keep asking about my eating situation, I figured this would shed some light on the matter. If any of you folks have some simple recipes that I may be able to add to my arsenal, send 'em my way!
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To whom it may concern,
I think that it's great that you're forced to cook, and that you're already taking the creative routes and experimenting. While it's always good to have some basic culinary knowledge, I think that many great dishes are conceived out of curiosity, alone. I think that you'll find that it'll take less time as you get more comfortable.
As for Oven temperature settings... I'll assume that your stove is run on gas. I've never used an oven with number settings in place of temperature settings, but I'd assume one of two things:
1) Think of each setting in 100-degree intervals, with setting "6" being "broil." A slight variation of this would be for it to start with 150 degrees and progress to 250, 350, 450, 500, and broil (this is the case with my oven, at least).
2)Since you're in Europe, it might start at 50(Celsius) and go up in increments of 50 up to 250(C), with the sixt one being the equivalent of "Broil."
I'm not sure how you'd be able to know for sure...I suppose you could fill a pan with water and set it to the first setting and wait a while to see if it starts to boil. Then you could move it up a notch (or even a half notch), wait, and check. You'll at least have an idea of where 100(C)/212(F) is.
Anyway, I hope all is well. I'll write back later.
Sincerely,
Anonymous
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