Hello, Elizabethtown College students and community! How are you? Feeling a bit peckish, perhaps? While there are certainly a lot of positive aspects of grabbing something to eat from the Jay’s Nest or having a meal at the Marketplace, there’s nothing quite like eating a meal you made yourself. 

Now, some of you might be tempted to stop reading now. After all, not everyone has a talent for cooking. Honestly, I don’t think I have any particular aptitude in the kitchen. (Except for washing dishes; I’m very, very good at washing dishes.) That being said, what I do have is a level of overconfidence in my own abilities that has infrequently failed me. 

As Chef Gusteau said in Disney’s “Ratatouille,” “anyone can cook.” Remy might have replied to the effect that not everyone should cook, but how much stock do we really want to put in early-movie Remy. Early on he’s just a close-minded rat.  

Trust me, I’m a much more open-minded rat. 

So, let’s talk about cooking for the inexperienced chef. If you ask me, the best way to start cooking is to work with inexpensive and readily available ingredients. 

I’m mostly talking about pasta and vegetables that you would find commonly in salad. You could even get some of your ingredients in Marketplace To-Go boxes, if you don’t want to run to the grocery. No need to get right into cooking pufferfish or to know what chard is. (It’s a leafy green.) 

You’re also going to want to have some basic spices (salt, pepper, garlic powder and anything you specifically know you love) as well as some sort of fat for cooking. Your cooking fats include butter, margarine and various sorts of oil. 

Now, to get to the cooking. So, try not to panic, but I’m an Aries, and I cook without worrying about troublesome specifics like measurements or cook times. 

Admittedly, that’s why I mostly deal with vegetables, pasta and potatoes. You know, things that you just check that they’re soft enough? 

For better or worse, I’m going to coach you in the art of intuitive cooking. This week we’ve got two concepts to play around with. Both involve pasta and vegetables. Shocking, I know. 

The first recipe is ramen stir fry. The first thing to do is start to cook your noodles and vegetables. Honestly, you can just throw the veg in the water with your noodles while you are boiling them. We’re looking to get the food tender, but not soggy.

After that, we’ve arrived at the stir fry part of the program. Again, I’m not exactly a chef. What you can do, though, is use the flavor packet (to taste) and add your eggs. When you crack the eggs into the pan you’re going to want to get everything covered and keep it moving. This isn’t just a fried egg and noodles. It’s supposed to be stir fry. Definitions evade me, but it’ll probably taste good. Hopefully. 

The second recipe I’ve got for you sounds sophisticated, but is still super easy. We’re talking a lemon spinach chicken pasta. If you’re a vegetarian, just leave out the chicken. Easy fix!

The first thing you’ll want to do is cook your sliced onion in butter with your garlic to soften it up. While you’re doing this you can also boil your water and cook your pasta. 

While both of those things are happening you can be cutting your chicken into small pieces. I prefer to work with precooked, because I think raw meat is gross to touch. If you want to cook your chicken yourself, then just make sure you cook it well enough so you don’t get salmonella. 

Then, combine the chicken, pasta, onion and the fresh spinach. You might want to add more butter here, and probably some salt. Squeeze lemon into this mess and add zest if you’re feeling fancy. 

Cook this for a few moments until the spinach is warm and a little wilty. You’ll know when it’s time. Then, if you want you can top with parmesan cheese and serve. It’ll probably taste super good! I believe in you!