As you may (or may not) know, I am 21 years old. For the last 21 years of my life I have always lived with my sister and my parents. I will be the first to admit that in this time I have only ironed twice (yes… this is a massive embarrassment but read on). I sometimes cook, and for certain recipes can cook a MEAN meal, however I never cook for my family, mainly from lack of confidence.
As I mention lack of confidence I think that this is a good topic for a future post… we will see how we go. But that is for another time in the same place. My sister is currently living in London for 2 years and my parents have skipped the country for three weeks to go on holidays (and in part visit my sister).
So… what does this mean for me. It means that I am for the first time in my life living alone and fending *entirely* for myself. My sister and I lived without the folks for two months several years back and managed, but somehow this time seems different as I am on my own… fending for myself.
For me, this means that it is time for me to grow as a person and do a few things I have not had the chance to do. One of these is ironing, but that is for another night and another post. Tonight the topic is *COOKING*.
I have always loved cooking and as a youngster took Food Technology in high school, and have since then taken some other lessons in cooking. For me following a recipe and making certain judgments is not an issue. It is the throw-together-meals-without-a-recipe sorta things that get me curling up in the corner rocking back and fourth.
So tonight I cooked Veal Schnitzel, with a side of mashed potatoes and carrots. Now I guess a couple of things I have learned:
1. Carrots do not take as long as potatoes to cook (these were steamed for as long as the potatoes boiled… they went kinda mushy)
2. Next time when cooking a Schnitzel, use a different oil in the pan, extra light olive oil just didn’t cut it and caused the batter to stick
3. I *can* competently (and quite successfully) cook mashed potatoes to perfection (and I am aware of how easy this is but hey… give me that at least).
Here are three photos for you to enjoy of my first disaster… err.. I mean dinner 
I look at this as a win. I am going to get a great chance over the next three weeks to get my footing better for cooking meals on the fly, or in other words, grabbing whatever out of the fridge and cooking up a healthy (and tasty) storm.
Over the next three weeks there are probably going to be a lot of cooking posts. If anything I hope that it can give budding young cooks some help to not make the same mistakes.
Well, I hope you enjoyed my mistake of a dinner. It is going to be a hectic three weeks but I will be huddling up in my Secluded Habitat often.
Au Revoir dear reader.
Stuart 
