The semi-domesticated grad student

In the course of my career as a graduate student I have learned a reat number of things. Things including the molecular genetics of polyploidy, real time PCR, botany, the history and culture of Canada's Aboriginal peoples, how to give academic presentations, how to write academic papers and how to drink wine with your supervisors. All very important things. However, my learning has not been limited to the classroom, lab, or ahem, bar.

The roomie and I have learned quite a bit about cooking in the past two years. In the course of our undergrads, neither of us were exactly culinary mavens. I bought a lot of prepackaged salads and pasta dishes. The roomie only grocery shopped at Shoppers Drug Mart for a while. We were somewhat better than some of our roommates however, one of whom who shall remain nameless, lived on white rice and Dr. Pepper, for about six weeks at one point.

Going from sharing a kitchen with six girls to just the two of us, and realizing the economy of sharing groceries and meals, we have became quite the budding chefs. We whip up nutritious pastas with veggies, omlettes, discoveries such as naan-wiches, and just last week make gazpacho for the first time for the roomie's parents. We're pretty awesome. We've also found that when we combined our shared grocery shopping, usually with more veggies than usual, it has a positive effect upon our waistlines, if we manage to restrict the beers as well.

Inspired by Julie, on Friday we cooked up some stuffed peppers. We were left with extra pureed tomatoes and beans however (we used another recipe that involved meat, we are both currently trying to upour excercising and thus need MOAR PROTEIN) and decided to make chili. We managed to rouse ourselves this afternoon from our comfy spots on the couches, braved the rain and did groceries.

Our chili will include carrots, mushrooms, peppers, tomatoes, ground beef and jalapenos to name a few lovely healthy things.

The beer we've poured to accompany it is kind of healthy right? Hops and such?

I also whipped up a batch of homemade iced tea this afternoon, rich in lovely antioxidants and delish for what is shaping up to be another sizzler of a week.

In any case, I'm much savvier in the kitchen than I was two years ago. I learned that rather than cooking from scratch being a chore, its a lot cheaper, healthier, and a lot of fun when you do it with one of your best friends. I'll miss this kitchen in a few weeks....

P.S. The kitchen post-chili. I said SEMI-domesticated, we're still working on the cleaning aspects...