Domestic Goddess

I've never considered myself to be a domestic being...a homebody, yes, at times....but generally I was quite comfortable with that home having piles of laundry and books scattered everywhere and maybe the occasional dirty dish in the sink (one thing that I've always had a hard time tolerating, however, is the dust bunny...death to all dust bunnies! Moving on....). After living for the past two years in a space that never felt like mine (and I was frequently reminded of the fact that it WASN'T mine), having a nest is now important to me. And while I don't necessarily feel like Peter's apartment is mine either, I DO find myself carving out little cozy corners that are all mine.

It is surprising to me that certain aesthetic things bother me now, like piles of random clutter, or mismatching silverware, or the random packs of sesame crackers in the living room. However, I think the biggest surprise for me now is learning that I enjoy cooking. It's never something that I have been particularly good at, or really had any sort of desire to learn how to do. Like, AT ALL. But now that I coexist with someone whose appetite is enormous (as is his appreciation for any sort of thing that I whip up in the kitchen), I find cooking to be enjoyable and relaxing, especially since Peter frequently insists on doing the cleaning afterward :).

In the past few weeks I have tackled dishes like chicken enchiladas, penne a la vodka, pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting, and frosted lemon sugar cookies. This weekend Peter's brother is visiting us, and we had an amazing breakfast of challa bread that he brought us from New York City, and eggs that Peter scrambled with cheese and onion. Our "weekend coffee" ritual involves beans that we grind ourselves and put in the French press. It is potent and delicious, and I look forward to it all week.

At the moment Peter and his brother are at Trader Joe's purchasing the ingredients for pumpkin soup, curried couscous, a broccoli cheese casserole, and another batch of the frosted lemon sugar cookies that I plan on making today, right after taking a rainy afternoon run.

So while the changes that I am experiencing now are not as grandiose and ground-breaking and somehow exotic as those that I experienced in Asia, it's still nice to grow in small, unexpected, and occasionally delicious ways.

Does anyone have any recipes for me to try??