My motivation for this blog came from trying to feed myself in New York City. It surprised me to see the culture around eating out and ordering food in NYC – it’s just so easy when there are so many restaurants all around you. But the dollars and the calories quickly start piling up and it is so much more satisfying to sit down to a meal you know you prepared. So then I turned to the internet for recipe inspiration. I have always loved to bake, so picking up a skillet was the natural next step. I grew quickly discouraged, however, when I started scrolling through blog posts with twenty ingredients and incomprehensible words in the title like “ricotta gnudi” and “sieved eggs.” I just wanted dinner tonight and some leftovers for lunch, please.
So that’s where I hope Forks and Recreation comes in. I want to provide inspiration for other young folks like myself to cook for themselves. We do not have much expertise, a large budget, or a very well stocked kitchen, but that is half the fun of it. We get to dream up whatever sounds good and see if we can make it – without the help of a pizza stone. I want to show that cooking can be fun and it does not have to be work. After coming home from five hours of class, four hours at my work study job, and a couple group meetings, there’s hardly anything I look forward to more than turning on the stereo in the kitchen and cooking a nice, warm dinner or meal prepping my lunches for the week. It is completely possible to cook the majority of our food for ourselves with simple recipes and make delicious, healthy, portable meals that will save your wallet and your waistline.
Some basic guiding parameters that came to mind as I thought about the direction of this blog:
1) Mostly recipes that will make quick & easy dinners after work or lunches to take on the go. The “recreation” in the title comes from the thought that a) cooking should be easy and enjoyable, and 2) food should be enjoyed anywhere – parks, work, with friends, solo recharge time, or wherever you may find yourself.
2) Cooking from whole ingredients. When you cook for yourself with mostly whole ingredients, you naturally start cutting out processed food from your diet. I have noticed a huge difference in how I feel now that I am cooking for myself – miserable stomachaches disappeared and my energy stays more constant throughout the day. That being said, nothing is “off limits” for me.
3) No fancy kitchen gear. My apartment has some skillets and some pots, but that’s about it. The fanciest thing I own is a blender from the 1980s.
4) No obscure ingredients that you will use only once. Living with four roommates in NYC means I have one shelf and one quarter of the fridge. I do not have room for crazy ingredients, and I am sure you do not either. No ricotta gnudi on this blog.
Please join me on this grand adventure of enjoying cooking and loving eating!