Done with Denial

Hello, my name is Kourtney, and I'm a bakaholic.

Group: "Hello, Kourtney."

Whew. Glad I finally got that out in the open.

I love to bake. I love to cook. My favorite room in any house is the kitchen. My internet favorites folder is full of multiple subfolders, full of links to recipes that I've tried and love, or am chomping at the bit to try. I'm like a kid in a candy store when the Williams Sonoma catalogue comes out, and don't even get me started on how excited I get for family gatherings, and I get the opportunity to work some culinary magic in the kitchen.

The really sad reality is that I hate cooking for myself. In my opinion, there's nothing more depressing than cooking for one. Most of the time, I eat oatmeal, egg frittatas, or soup for dinner, simply because I can't bring myself to get the kitchen totally destroyed for one measley person. Basically, I need to cook for a group of people, a crowd, someone or something to appreciate the work and fun I had. Which may explain why I'm already scouring the internet for Thanksgiving dessert recipes to consider. Because it really will take me from now to November 26 to decide what to make.

For example: tonight my good friend B is coming over for dinner. So in honor of a dinner partner and someone besides myself to cook for, I'm making linguine with chicken thigh marinera, spinach salads, and fresh Snickerdoodles (his favorite cookie) for dessert. Tomorrow night I've already decided that I need to try a new recipe, so I'm making dinner for myself and my grandma (aka roommate). A new recipe that incorporates SO many of my favorite foods: pasta, butternut squash, BACON, and spinach. Groan. How can this not be good? Another favorite pasttime is taking an old favorite recipe, and tweaking it to (hopefully) improve it. Another example: Oatmeal cake with toasted coconut-pecan glaze became Oatmeal Apple Spice cake with Toasted Coconut-Pecan glaze with the addition of powdered sugar to make it a bit more sweet. Definitely a winner from all reports.

Anyways. I've been thinking about taking a class at our local community college, simply to learn something new, get out of the house, and hopefully meet some new people. I was talking to my mom this morning, and mentioned how much I'd like to take a community education class and started looking at the different class options. I kid you not, the first words out of her mouth were, "Kourtney, don't even THINK about taking a cooking class." See how well this woman knows me? That EXACTLY what I was thinking of taking, but considering I'm going on NutriSystem again (the last 10 pesky pounds that I didn't lose last time are going to LEAVE. FOR. GOOD.), it probably isn't a good idea to take a cooking class, where the homework involves calories that would most likely take up (semi-) permanent residence on my hips. Or at least the hips of my coworkers. I don't really see either scenario ending well. Looks like I'll end up taking a class that actually has some use in life, like caligraphy or ceramics pottery. The kind of stuff that will undoubtably be featured on the next Man vs. Wild episode.