New strings to my bow

My evolution into a well-rounded individual continues apace, as I made my first foray into the world of proper cooking this week.

I tried to cook something for the first time on Thursday night which didn't just involve the act of adding jar of sauce to browned meat, and managed to make it taste kind of like it was supposed to and not give either J or me food poisoning into the bargain. Ok, so it was only Cottage Pie, but that's because J likes cottage pie, and I was trying to do something nice for Valentine's day. It wasn't yer standard common-or-garden pie either - it had parsnip and horseradish in the mash and both thyme and a bay leaf in the mincey bit. I'd never really noticed that supermarkets had "herb" section before, and milled around for quite some time looking completely uneasy, reading and re-reading the little labels on the shelves to make sure I was buying the right thing whilst seasoned (like what I did there?) herb purchasers elbowed me out of the way to buy whatever it was they needed for the ad hoc extravaganza they were planning on knocking together when they got home. But I got there in the end, and after 2 and a half hours spent turning the kitchen into a bomb site, I think it proved worth it, if J's reaction was anything to go by. Of course, in the time it had taken me to cook she had demolished half a bottle of red wine, so she may have been a little less critical than Gordon Ramsay.

The knock on effect is that I now have a little bit of confidence that I can actually follow a recipe and make something approaching a half decent meal from fresh ingredients. Today I knew I had mushrooms, a chicken fillet and the remaining thyme in the fridge, so bought some leeks and potatoes, wrapped some bacon and herbs around the chicken, and rustled up something vaguely similar to a Tesco finest ready meal. I somehow feel much fuller and more satisified than if I'd bought the same thing from a shop, despite the fact it probably cost almost exactly the same amount.....