Cooking Attempt Number One: Oven, 1: Me, 0!

Don’t miss the beginning!

I. Introducing Jamie

As I kick off one of my first cooking highlights, I think a little background material might be beneficial to showcase how incompetent I am in this arena. Living in Columbus, going to Ohio State, working a couple of jobs and attending the occasional class took up a lot of time throughout college so I always had an excuse for why I was just ordering out. That, and doing so allowed me to avoid an evening run to the grocery store when already hungry and buying twenty items, all of which expired before ever being consumed.

One day I got off work early, perhaps skipped an afternoon class—though I’d never admit it—and decided I’d do the craziest thing ever (yes, even more so than jumping in Mirror Lake when it’s 20 degrees). I would make dinner. So, I loaded up on groceries, got back to my lovely college apartment and attempted marinated chicken breasts. Yes, I know it’s a PORK blog, but hang in there. So, I did everything perfectly, dinner smelled amazing as it started to cook and I decided it’d be the perfect time to catch up on some studying and my favorite television shows.

THREE hours later, my roommate got home from class and asked if she actually smelled something cooking—as in, ‘are you seriously cooking dinner?’ which was dripping with sarcasm no less. The picture at right showcases my so-called dinner that night after I remembered that food I happened to be cooking. Hours earlier. How was I supposed to know our oven had a super over-cook function? I’m sure this had nothing to do with the time the food was actually in that oven…

It only took me three years to recover from my cooking cluster and to work up the confidence to try another go at marinating. Keeping in mind the pan used that day didn’t fare near as well as I did. But, nonetheless, this time I marinated in style with—you guessed it—pork.