First Meal Cooked

Last Saturday I took yet another step towards complete self-sufficiency and cooked my first meal in my new house!  With the help of the Peace Corps Cookbook for Guinea (Thanks to my sister, Jennie for finding it for me!!) I was able to test out some cooking skills I wasn’t sure I really had.  It took a few hours, and of course it wasn’t perfect, but it was a fun experience and hopefully I’ll be able to develop a lot more cooking skills in the year ahead.

For my first meal I cooked the basics: Rice and Beans.  After soaking the beans for most of the day, I cooked them for an hour, and also cooked up some rice (which is quite simple).  Unfortunately, the rice was slightly overcooked, but I can only imagine cooking rice will become a task I will perfect by year's end.  To accompany the rice and beans, I sautéed some vegetables from the market and Voila! Dinner is served.  On another positive and negative note, I cooked WAY too much food, but actually it’s good because with a fridge I am able to store plenty of food, which will be an easy and convenient option for lunchtime.

A successful (but not perfect) first meal… what to cook next?