Cooking/Baking
When I step into the kitchen, I may not be the most skilled baker or cook, but I always have fun. Over the years, I’ve definitely improved, and I now have a few simple recipes to share. If you love cooking and baking as I do but prefer to stick to easy, approachable recipes, these are perfect for you.
Breakfast
For breakfast, my go-to is a breakfast sandwich on a bagel. This will be the easiest to make.
Ingredients:
1 egg
2 strips of bacon
1 piece of ham
1 bagel
1 slice of American cheese
1/2 teaspoon of butter
Salt and Pepper
Instructions:
Making this breakfast sandwich is super easy! Start by cooking your bacon in the oven at 425°F for a few minutes. While that’s cooking, melt some butter in a pan and season it with a little salt and pepper. Pop your bagel in the toaster so it’s ready when everything else is done.
Once the butter is melted, carefully crack an egg into the pan. Let it cook a bit before breaking the yolk so it stays nice and round. After the egg is cooked, warm your ham in the same pan. Then start assembling the sandwich right in the pan so everything stays warm. Once the bacon, ham, and egg are ready, add cheese on top so it melts. Finally, layer all those delicious ingredients onto your toasted bagel and just like that, you’ve got a simple, tasty breakfast sandwich!
Dinner
For me, lunch is more of a microwave meal type of thing, so we are going to skip to dinner. My go-to for dinner is vodka pasta.
Ingredients:
1/4 yellow onion
2 garlic cloves
Salt
6 ounces tomato paste
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
3 ounces vodka
1 1/4 cup heavy cream
1 pound pasta (I recommend rigatoni)
1/2-3/4 cup pasta water (if needed)
2 ounces mozzarella
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Instructions:
The first thing you want to do is boil the pasta, but make sure to leave it slightly undercooked because it will finish cooking in the sauce. While the pasta is boiling, melt your butter in a large pan. Dice up your garlic and onion, then add them to the butter and cook until the onion starts to turn golden. Next, stir in the tomato paste and let it cook for a few minutes. Slowly add the heavy cream while mixing, then season with your favorite spices and red pepper flakes. After that is when you're gonna add the vodka and let that cook out a little. Then, gradually add some mozzarella to thicken the sauce. If it gets too thick, use a bit of the reserved pasta water to thin it out. Finally, add the pasta to the sauce and stir until the noodles are fully coated. And just like that, you have a quick, easy, and delicious pasta dinner!
Dessert
Now for dessert. These are my grandma Bridget's homemade cookie recipe, she used to make for me as a little kid when I was allergic to milk so she made these cookies so I could eat them. Here's the exact recipe she wrote down and gave to me.
Ingredients:
One cup of soft butter.
One cup of brown sugar.
Two eggs. One cup of white sugar.
3 cups of flour. (I usually make the last cup of flour a little short to make the cookies flat, but you don’t have two.)
1 tsp of vanilla,
1tsp of soda
1/2 tsp salt,
2 cups of chocolate chips.
Instructions:
Cream butter, sugar vanilla together until creamy. Add two eggs and mix them. I usually put them all in at once, but you can add eggs later. Set the eggs out while you’re creaming butter so they are not too cold. Mix your dry ingredients. Add dry ingredients to the butter mix and stir together. Don’t over-mix, as you will be adding chocolate chips. Add the chocolate chip and stir together.
Use a tablespoon or cookie scoop and place on a cookie sheet. I have the silicone sheets, which are very nice because cookies won’t burn. Bake 11-15 minutes. When cookies are browning nicely and not shiny, take them out. Let it sit for 10 minutes and take it off the cookie sheet.
“Cooking is not difficult. Everyone has taste, even if they don’t realize it. Even if you’re not a great chef, there’s nothing to stop you from understanding the difference between what tastes good and what doesn’t.”
– Gerard Depardieu