Confessions

I have to admit something, well two things to be exact. So that it can no longer be used as blackmail, I am admitting to the world that I do not like roast beef. The only exception to that is the thinly sliced cold cut roast beef that you eat on sandwiches. I am not a fan of the sunday pot roast that my mother loves to make.

With that off my chest, I will get to the actual point of this blog, I am a bad cook. Well, maybe not a bad cook, but I'm definitely not a good cook. I like baking, but when it comes to making meals, I am a nervous wreck. I stress over what I'm grilling, broiling, or frying, and usually end with a less than satisfactory product. In fact, my family has taken to calling the things (beyond hamburger helper) that I try to cook "wanna-be's." My "wanna-be hamburgers" more closely resembled very charred versions of their cousins, meatballs.

I usually simply avoid the kitchen and let my mother prepare the greatest meals. (I have no chance of ever living up to her, and that's not just a daughter's prejudice, but cold hard fact.) Next year, however, forces me to step up to the plate, or more appropriately the stove. I am living in apartment-style housing with 3 other girls, and we are making all our own meals. I refuse to let them carry the load and cook for me, while I mooch off their skills. It is time I faced the kitchen.

This past weekend, though, I was heartened by the gift of some tools of the trade to help me on my adventure. As a gift for helping with the Nebraska Beef Ambassador contest, I gained what I am certain will become my bible for the coming year. The Healthy Beef Cook Book may be my salvation. I know how to follow a recipe, and this book has a variety of recipes, including ones I'm sure that will be simple enough for me, the culinary challenged.

Armed with a spatula, tasty and nutritious beef (probably stolen from the freezer at home), and The Healthy Beef Cook Book, I will begin a quest to create tasty meals that don't come from a box!

'till the cows come home

Ellie