I can cook!

I had a cookbook with that title when I was younger (7-12, I guess) and I used to get the biggest kick out of getting my dad to help me make stuff in it. I've never been big on cooking. It was always a huge hassle. I think I just picked stuff that was too complicated.

Turns out, I really enjoy cooking. I cook pretty much every night and it's fun. At this point, I have a pretty well stocked Japanese kitchen. I've played with deep frying (something other than chicken and catfish), a wok and my steamer. It's all pretty cool to use. I use lots of sake, mirin (sweet cooking sake), soy sauce, garlic and onion. I've even used green peppers (and, mom, you were right...I hit 27 and BOOM, they're good. I still say the ones here - which are MUCH smaller - are sweeter and taste better, though, so we'll see what I think of them once I get back to the US.)

We eat Japanese about 75% of the time, I would guess. It's easier to find those ingredients, obviously, and much better for us. We're losing weight, which we all like. I think we'll end up keeping many of the Japanese recipes in the 'rotation' once we get home just because they're tasty, easy to prepare and (did I mention?) healthier.

I'm still not to the point of being comfortable enough to cook without a recipe by my side, but I'm certainly getting more confidence in the kitchen. I'm starting to experiment a bit more. I'm even risking more complicated recipes and adding little notes to my cookbook on things they don't mention, but I've learned after doing the recipe a couple of times - reminders to myself for the next time.

At this point, I have only one problem. Anyone know how to make my hands NOT smell like onion and garlic all the time? :)