I have been blessed by having my mom and grandmother being amazing cooks. The majority of the time when I was in the kitchen with them, I was given small tasks like cutting, mixing, grating food. My favorite part of it was sampling some of the food while they weren’t looking.
From homemade mac and cheese, sweet potato pie to my mom’s wings or calzones, these are some dishes that I often have on my mind when I think about home. Leaving for Ireland was a whole new challenge when it came to being in the kitchen. Often times, I will call my mom for some ideas of what to eat instead of eating pasta for the third time in a week. She always comes up with things I completely forgot about and shows me how easy and effective they are.
My goal when I first got here was to get recipes from both my mom and my grandmother. When cooking with my grandmother, instead of using measuring cups or spoons, she often eyes everything. Because of this, I faced some struggles in being a new cook asking someone what to measure when they have been cooking for so many years. Even with that, measuring in itself is a task because of converting metric units to standard units.
So far I have tackled the making numerous dishes like lamb with rice and asparagus. My personal favorite was the Sunday dinner which consisted of a whole roasted chicken with potatoes, rice, and a salad on the side. I think I have done a pretty good job so far but now my new task will be baking which is a whole other beast to conquer. Wish me luck!
