The truth is, I’m not a bad cook when I feel like going to the effort. But cooking elaborate things for just myself is lame, so I don’t really do it. My roommate probably thinks the only things I know how to “cook” are spaghetti, frozen lasagna, salad, and rice in the rice maker (and even the rice maker has only been used a handful of times in the year I’ve lived in the house). And a confession- food often goes bad in my fridge, either because I don’t eat it once I’ve cooked it (I eat out WAY too much), or because I buy food intending to cook it, but never make the time to cook it. Also, because I’ve been intimidated to cook chicken. I’ve had a few disastrous attempts over the years, and, well, isn’t that why there’s always a case full of hot roasted chicken at the store (which I will buy, debone, and let half of go bad)?

However, the time has come for me to start being very mindful of what I am consuming and lose this weight I’ve been carrying around for way too long. Time to work on my eating issues and actually stick to a food plan. That food plan requires me to buy fresh foods at the grocery store and actually MAKE meals for myself that consist of fresh, healthful ingredients.

The salads for weekday lunches are easy and require minimal effort. Fruit for breakfast and snacks is also easy. But my plan calls for me to be eating baked chicken and steamed vegetables for dinner on weeknights.

I am embarrassed to tell you how much chicken has gone bad in my fridge because I have been intimidated by cooking it (and we’re not even going to think about that time I gave myself salmonella becasue I couldn’t take the thought of throwing out yet another package). What if it came out totally dry? What if, like that time I tried to make funeral food, I cooked it for 3 hours and it was still pink next to the bone? I will tackle an unknown recipe from epicurious because it sounds good, armed with nothing but a recipe and a counter full of ingredients, but oven-baking chicken intimidates me.

Then over the summer my friend Kate served me “oven-fried chicken”. Easy peasy and delicious, but requires eggs, milk, and seasoned flour. (TANGENT: I grew up eating my mom’s fried chicken, and she makes her own seasoned flour. I have tried and tried as an adult to make my mom’s seasoned flour, but she doesn’t use a recipe. She does it by sight and taste, and I cannot for the life of me reproduce it. So, when I wanted to try oven-fried chicken at home, I called my mom and begged her to make me a jar of flour for my very own, and, because she loves me, she did.) I’ve made it a few times, but actually forgot about it until just now writing this post. Maybe I’ll make some up some week if I get sick of plain.

I did a search for baked chicken recipes, but many, many of them required extra ingredients. I wanted a recipe to tell me, plainly, how to bake chicken, and just chicken. I found this recipe, and decided a couple of weeks ago to give it a shot, and it turned out SO YUMMY, and made the house smell awesome as well. I made a few changes- I coated the bottom of the pan with a light layer of olive oil (a single teaspoon and a basting brush will coat a large roasting pan), and instead of sprinkling both sides of the chicken with spices, I sprinkled salt, pepper and garlic powder on the bottom of the pan, laid the chicken in (I use thighs rather than whole chicken parts) brushed them lightly with olive oil, and sprinkled the tops with the same salt, pepper and garlic powder. And I forgot to turn the oven down after 30 minutes, but have found that 2lbs of chicken at 400 degrees for 45 minutes turns out incredibly well. Remove chicken from roasting pan onto a plate immediately, and cover as the recipe instructs. Delicious and keeps well in the fridge. So easy.

P.S. I’m looking for microwave steaming options that don’t involve disposable plastic bags. Anyone have something they use and love?

So, I got an award for this poor excuse for a blog. I have a feeling it is based more on my person than my blog, since this thing has been neglected for so long. Caryn tagged me for this almost 2 months ago, and apparently I just suck. But I won’t make that one of my seven things. The rules are that I have to tell you seven interesting things about myself and pass it along to seven other bloggers. I probably won’t do that second part, becasue, as I have mentioned, I suck.

1. When I got my job, I planned to stay for a year and then look for something else. I’d been in non-profit for years and law did not interest me and was not what I wanted to do. I’ve been there six and a half years now with no immediate plans to change. Still no plans to get my paralegal, but I’m content for now.

2. I took up hockey at 31 years of age, having never played a sport before in my life, other than a minor interest in tennis when I was like, 10 that never went anywhere. I love it, and it makes me feel accomplished every time I play. I’m coming up on the 2 year mark and can see how far I’ve come, and am amazed at what I’ve been able to get this body of mine to do.

3. I’ve struggled with my weight my entire adult life. A lot of people have encouraged me to try to get on The Biggest Loser, but I just don’t see myself as the “appeared on a reality show” type, not even one that’s not skeevy and exploitative.

4. Anthropologie is a company that makes clothing for willowy women, and I’m hoping someday to be able to wear their stuff. I’ve started a wishbook with clippings from their catalogues and various fashion magazines of the things I’d like to be able to wear someday. I’ve also got a few of their pieces on my fridge as motivation.

5. I also started cycling last year, and I love it. I’m not very good at it, in terms of endurance and stuff, but I’m working on it. I want to ride 50 miles in July, and I don’t know if I’ll be able to do it. But I’m going to try, and ride as far as I can, and not just give up before I start, which has sort of been my pattern in the past.

6. I love San Francisco but have no desire to live there. I love wandering around my friend Heather’s neighborhood with her, I love the cafes and produce stands and hole in the wall bars. I love Golden Gate Park and the Palace of Fine Arts and the Legion of Honor. But I like that it’s a place to visit. I’ll keep my little house in the suburbs with my awesome roommate.

7. My apartment has an alcove, and I’ve always loved rooms with alcove beds. I was tempted to put my own bed there when I moved in, but didn’t really want my bedroom sharing space with my living room. I have grand plans for the alcove once I’m no longer using it for storage- maybe an alcove bed, but I need to figure out how that’ll work with the bookshelves I also want to put in there… I’m thinking it’s time to get ruthless, as I’ve officially lived in my place for a year and haven’t even unpacked some of the boxes.

I’ve been drinking coffee since I was about 3 years old. Well, “drinking coffee”. When I was a baby we lived in Petaluma. After we moved to where I grew up, every once in a while we’d go to a hardware store there that was owned by family friends- M. Maselli & Sons. (aside: if you watch Mythbusters you may have seen said hardware store. It was one of my favorite places as a kid) Maselli’s had complimentary coffee for its customers (and last I heard, it still does today), and for the coffee was a box of sugar cubes. Now, being kids, my sister and I knew what those were, and we wanted them. My dad however, said the sugar cubes were for the coffee, and if we wanted them we had to have coffee. So he’d give us styrofoam cups with about 3 tablespoons of coffee, a sugar cube, and some cream, and we’d be happy as clams. This went on as we grew up, and by the time my dad took me fishing when I was 11 and we stopped at Maselli’s on the way home, I was up to half a styrofoam cup (ooooh!).

By high school, a cute little coffee shop had opened up in town, and the cool kids with cars would go there before school and show up with the shop’s signature teal and purple cups. Those cups were status symbols. I had my first mocha at that shop my junior year, on my last date with my first love. My senior year, I had home ec first period. Our teacher brought in a coffee pot and let us drink in class from mugs we stored in the class kitchens.

In college, I lived in the campus cafe, studying, doing homework, and playing cards with my friends. My drink of choice was something called an “eye opener”- a shot of espresso in a large coffee.

And of course, having held an array of office jobs as an adult, my morning cup has been enjoyed while going over email, voicemail, and the standard tasks of the morning.

All of this to say, I never really felt like coffee affected me. I had friends who needed coffee to give them that wake-up jolt in the morning, but I just liked the taste. I have to say, that thanks to habits formed early, I drank what my dad called “candy coffee”. Light and sweet. Even the eye-openers in college were laced with a ton of milk and sugar. In college, I could drink a double mocha out with friends at 9pm and go right to bed when I got home. I also mostly only drank coffee during the week once I started working full time- making it at home smacked of effort. I was probably in a bit of denial about the caffeine, as if I went too long without coffee or a soda, I’d get a wicked headache. In the past year or so, the candy coffee has been phased out. I still put milk or cream in my coffee, but I’ve cut it way down and no longer add sugar.

Everyone says your body changes as you get older, and it processes foods differently. Boy howdy. My body has finally decided that caffeine keeps it awake. Sadly, I usually only remember this fact when I’m lying in bed at midnight wondering why I’m not sleepy yet… So much for my late afternoon cup…