In which Greg cooks

Hey! I hope you've been keeping in touch via other means, since it's been nearly 3 years since I've posted here. We've since moved to San Francisco, gotten new jobs, and all that jazz.

Anywho, every 6 months or so, I decide that I'm going to become a better cook. Our typical routine has been pan-fry some sort of meat, make frozen vegetables or spinach, and prepare some rice. And I know even that's ambitious compared to other people our age. But now I'm going to try some actual recipes. Who knows how long this will last? Maybe another 3 years will go by before my next post, but hopefully this will be more of a regular thing. I'm mostly writing for selfish reasons, so that I can remember things that I've cooked.

A week ago, I decided I wanted to make a killer salad. I was always a big fan of the salad bar at my work cafeteria. This was the first time I went and bought 10+ ingredients for the specific purpose of tossing a salad. I just picked a lot of my favorite things: chicken, feta, croutons, green onions, olives, walnuts, etc. It's amazing how satisfying just mixing these things in a bowl can be.

Tonight, we've used a recipe for a book given to us by Sharon's friend Yesenia, who works at Chronicle Books. I made sauteed pork chops with sweet potato and apples from the book One Pan, Two Plates. I learned a few things:

• I should have made all four pork chops instead of just the two the recipe called for, mainly because I am a fatty.
• A little bit of cinnamon goes a long way. You can taste it in every bite despite only having 1/4-tsp in the recipe.
• Sharon will make a grossed-out face any time mustard is involved. So that just means more for me.