Starting from scratch

Date published: 6/4/2008

AT SOME POINT, it had to happen.

There's only so much pasta-with-jarred-red-sauce or frozen-entree-from-the-sale-rack that someone who likes real food can endure before she breaks down and starts shopping in parts of the grocery store where things aren't cooked already.

Six years ago, I was living alone for the first time in my life. No roommates who could cook, no college meal plan, no mom cooking dinner. Just me, my oven and whatever I'd bought at the grocery store.

And, for a long time, that wasn't pretty. Canned soups, dried pasta, jarred sauces and frozen dinners took up most of the space in my grocery basket.

Boneless, skinless chicken breasts? Never heard of 'em.

Lean ground beef? What on earth would I do with that?

As a newspaper reporter in Lynchburg, a town with three TV stations, I would rush home on the nights I wasn't working to catch the 6 p.m. local news broadcast.

On commercial breaks-- and during stories I didn't care about--I'd flip through the other channels, and that's how I met a perky Food Network host cooking something called "30-Minute Meals."

Now, before all you Rachael Ray-haters flood my inbox with messages about how she's harming us all by riddling the culinary lexicon with disasters like "EVOO," "stoup" and "yum-O," please hear me out.

Ray gets slammed by most foodies for her shortcuts and her tendency to giggle uncontrollably over something like, say, mozzarella cheese.

I find her hard to stomach these days, too, especially now that her face is splashed all over Dunkin' Donuts ads and Wheat Thins boxes.

But she got me to cook.

I saw her make her version of risotto and thought, "I can do that."

I saw how any idiot could turn packaged cuts of raw meat into actual meals and realized I need not fear the meat counter.

I learned to cook and I graduated from Ray. Now I find myself hopelessly addicted to food-themed television, food blogs and the steadily growing pile of cookbooks in my kitchen.

I'm not one for overly orchestrated dinner-party fare with hard-to-pronounce names.

I like simple food that will make my everyday meals--the ones my husband and I eat at home and the ones I take to work--more enjoyable and less boring.

I also like revisiting some of my childhood favorites.

WHITE BEAN PESTO DIP Prep time: 10 minutes Makes enough for six people to snack on 1 15 oz. can cannellini beans 1 cup fresh basil leaves cup grated Parmesan cheese cup lemon juice teaspoon salt, or to taste teaspoon black pepper 1 tablespoon olive oil Cook's note: Serve with crackers, pita wedges or any other dipping fare. I like blue corn chips with this. Procedure: Drain and rinse the beans. Put them in a food processor with all the other ingredients. Pulse until they form the texture you like. I like to see a few chunks of beans in my dip, but you may want a smoother texture. Recipe from: Adapted from Giada DeLaurentiis' "White Bean Dip with Pita Chips" from "Everyday Italian"

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Date published: 6/4/2008

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