As an engineer, I like cooking. What other activity combines trial and error experimentation and food? But, unfortunately, I have a limited repertoire. I spent a lot of time trying to find the perfect home fry recipe. As it turns out, there really isn’t a trick to it. The secret is butter. Just a huge, very unhealthy amount of butter. I took this cooking class hoping to learn some healthier recipes.

I should mention right off that I chose to make lasagna (baby steps). I liked the recipe I was given, but there are a couple of improvements I’d like to try. Firstly, get rid of the mushrooms. Mushrooms are awful. Secondly, maybe use a sharper cheese to add more flavor to the ricotta mix? You could also probably sneak some spinach in there, to make up for those evicted mushrooms. I’d also like to try my hand at making my own pasta sauce.

I also learned some useful skills. The food lab volunteers showed us the proper way to slice and peel an onion, which I appreciated, because I can never make equally sized pieces. They also talked about selecting pans and other cooking tools, which is useful for me, because I am considering moving off campus, and that means I will need to stock a kitchen. Lastly, it was a chance to practice my skills, which I don’t get to do so often at Cornell. Partly, it’s because I’m so busy. Also, I’d never used an electric stove before coming here (our stove at home is gas) and I’m deeply afraid I will set off the fire alarm and force everyone to go stand out in the cold.

While I enjoyed cooking for myself, the best part was seeing how everyone else did. As a group, I think we did very well. Everything I tried was excellent. I especially want to try making the spinach pasta. I’m looking forward to April break, when I will get a chance to try out some recipes and practice my new skills.