Steph Not Stephanie

Since I left my second job at the orchard, I’ve found myself with some free time. I still manage to plan my way into filling some of it, but I’ve also been doing a lot more cooking. I’ve detailed my long journey from a girl who didn’t know what a clove of garlic was to someone reasonably skilled—sometimes even without a recipe—in the kitchen (in case you don’t want to click every dumb hyperlink but you still want to see my stupid food pictures, check out the whole lot over on Instagram, where there are cats too). I’ve been asked to talk about my cooking before, and I have briefly, but tonight I was armed with wine and groceries and a plan to write an actual cooking post. I’ve decided to take a culinary arts course in the winter, and cooking is something I’m really passionate about, so why not share? Well, friends and onlookers, peek behind the curtain filters and see what happens before my meals are picture perfect.

Step 1: Aquire wine. Especially wine with a ridiculous name.

Step 2: Set up your green shit and necessary accessories. In my case, it’s music and my gloriously sharp Japanese steel. And wine.

Step 3: Get chopping.

Step 4: Pause to take funny picture.

Step 5: Chop some more, unaware of what fate has in store for you and your veggies.

Step 6: Make a tasty sauce. And get balsalmic vinegar all over yourself and your kitchen.

Step 6.5: Abandon food processor. Wildly throw things into the blender. Maple syrup, evoo, salt, pepper? Sure!

Step 7: Get your damn vegetables out of the oven.

Step 8: Drink more. It helps with the cleanup (as does having an agreement with your chef boyfriend wherein he does the dishes).

Step 9: Plate and take pictures of your beautiful meals. Roasted veggies with quinoa and balsamic mango sauce plus lunch for work, you kitchen goddess!

Steps 10 through 15: Spill wine on the pair of headphones that didn’t go through the wash last weekend, drink more wine (paired with dark chocolate), half-drunkenly write blog detailing cooking skills. #stephnotchef