Cooking Lessons

I've been picking up a lot of different food ideas, since I have to feed myself here. There's no lazy-going to the dining hall and complaining when the food is bad--if I'm complaining about the food being bad, it would be my own fault. So. While I wish I were learning to cook myself incredibly fast, gourmet meals every night, it's more like I'm learning tricks to get by with, and then I try to cook a lot of something one day and eat that for a while. Tomorrow morning will be that day (I bought the special pan and am going to make Käsespätzle, my new favorite food)

So I wouldn't quite call what I'm learning recipes, because I never actually get a recipe, just a simple way of combing things that radically changes my world.

the first: My roommate from September ate tuna fish on brown bread with slices of cucumber on top almost every day. To me it was a little strange, because I was only used to the tuna fish taste being completely dulled down by mayonnaise. She offered me some one day and I was actually pleasantly surprised by how good tuna fish tastes all on its own. And a can is only 69 cents, so tuna/cucumber sandwiches are pretty much my fall back these days. I got a toaster oven from my program, so I also can make a mean open-face grilled-whatever-is-in-my-fridge sandwich.

the second: My current roommate (who I will be living with for the remainder of my year here) cooked me dinner one night the very first week we were here, and she wanted to make the dessert she would always make with her friends. At the supermarket you can find rolled up sheets of dough, which to me are like store-bought pie crust, except sweeter and rectangular. We cut it into squares, place a square of chocolate in the center of each, and fold the dough over the sides of the chocolate, making a nice little package. Bake them for fifteen minutes, and you've got lovely little chocolate pastries for dessert...and breakfast.

Some of my hallmates from Bulgaria made cookies last night and offered me some and then kept making me eat more (saying no is always in vain here), and they happened to be in the kitchen right when I went in to bake the leftover sheet of dough, so I made them eat--I mean offered--them some. They also said how I could do this with meat and cheese and make savory snack/lunch versions. Wow. I am overwhelmed by how delicious and (nutritious?) easy that would be. And how soon it's going to happen.

p.s. important update: I now like tomatoes. I don't know how this happened. Maybe just because people offered me tomatoes and wouldn't let me refuse. The first time I liked a raw tomato was at Kimball's when I had to make BLTs all the time. But now I can somehow just eat. a. tomato. and enjoy it.

so there's hope for the world after all.