Food for Thought

For the past 3 years, one aspect I really have missed about being away from home has been the ability to cook. The first two years, I was confined to a college dorm room which lent itself to making coffee and heating up soup. I considered briefly trying to "cook" with my coffee maker (re: NPR article) but I quickly dispelled the thought of mandatory coffee flavored [insert food]. The third year of college, I shared what could possibly be described as "a kitchen" with seven other people. This being said, I was next to impossible to get any cooking time down there excluding building a sandwich or heating something up quickly. However, this year, I have my own kitchen and it has/continues to be glorious! I'm now constantly thinking of menus and perfecting certain dishes. The stars have now truly aligned now that Netflix has uploaded America's Test Kitchen! Netflix has never been a big thing in my life until this happened. I'm constantly jotting down recipes in the very specific and detail orientated way Chris Kimball lays them out. My manuscript note books have now equal parts musical ideas and recipes. Tonight, I have a friend coming in for the weekend and, in typical Ina Garten fashion, I ran out to the store and bought the *good* wine and the *good* loaf of bread. The menu for tonight is pesto (again courtesy of America's Test Kitchen) with farfalle pasta. Dare I say, because of this kitchen, I enjoy entertaining and just generally cooking with/for people. It's been a great excuse to get people over to the apartment and have some good conversation. 

Also, in shameless plug news, the premiere of Letter Writing is tomorrow afternoon (1:30) in the Recital Hall at UNCG. Additionally, Kelsey Paquin and William Hueholt are taking the show on the road, as it were, to Wilmington, NC (new and current home of my sister) and performing the very literal east coast premiere of Letter Writing!!! Hope to see you there.