Cooking. It takes time, money and you’re never really sure if it’s going to taste good or not.
Or at least, that’s what many college kids tend to think.
The reality is, cooking is easy — and often a more affordable alternative to eating out.
When I say cooking, I don’t mean put-a-slice-of-ham-between-two-slices-of-bread-easy. I mean cooking a stew or a meal that would even impress your mom.
Of course I know most of you don’t have an extensive pantry selection or even high quality food available — or affordable — to you. We’re students after all, right? Well trust me, even without that, you can cook so much more than a sandwich.
Take for example the quiche.
This French dish is a perfect example of a gourmet, healthful, cheap and quick meal everyone — and I mean everyone — can cook. The recipe is easy and the number of ingredients is low. With reasons like that, there’s no excuse for you to not try your hand at this gourmet French favorite.
To make a quiche you need:
• Three eggs
• A pie crust
• A few slices of bacon
• A few scoops of sour cream
• Any cheese you want to put on the top
Now, for the “hard” part — the cooking:
• Cook the bacon.
• Stir three eggs.
• Add the sour cream, salt and pepper to your eggs (you can add some Parmesan or other type of cheese for a richer, thicker result).
• Put the slices of bacon on the bottom of your pie crust.
• Put your egg mixture into the crust.
• Cover with cheese and bake at 350 degrees.
• After 20-25 minutes, Voilà! Quiche is served.
Was is that hard? No matter what your cooking proficiency, this simple recipe will take you 30 minutes, and the results will be delicious.
This one is a basic recipe, but it’s versatile. If you want to change it up a bit, you can improvise around it.
Brown some mushrooms and onion for a few minutes and throw them in your egg mixture with some chicken. You have a totally different quiche. Don’t like chicken? Add in some ground beef and top with some barbecue sauce and cheddar; again a different pie with minimal ingredients and time demand.
You also can create a tart rendition of your quiche by putting a second pie crust on the top and filling it with meat and vegetables. Potatoes work well with tarts. You don’t even need more eggs to bind it; just cook it the same as you would the quiche.
This recipe is just the first step in making cooking part of your weekly routine. Next you need to continue improvising.
Easier said than done, you may say, but there’s no magical solution. The more you cook, the more you will try and the more you will be able to say what works well together.
Yes, it also means you will have to experiment and discover by yourself. Some things are just not meant to be eaten together.
Ultimately the point is, with three eggs, some bacon and a pie crust, you have a complete and cheap meal.
Cooking should not be seen as a pain or another thing on the to-do list. It’s actually relatively simple to make delicious meals.
For me, it’s like painting: assembling colors that go together, and here and there, throwing in a completely unexpected ingredient and discovering it works.
Now, take your brush, and go paint your own delicious quiche.
CoCo Courtois is an exchange student from France studying journalism.
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sher8427 3 months, 1 week ago
Ok so I typically hate the OU Daily. The Life&Arts section is probably my fav of the columns, but it seems like there are never any articles... This article was great. I will more than likely be picking up the ingredients the next time I go to Walmart. I would love more articles about recipes that other students have to share. I am not that much of a cook, but now that I no longer work at papa johns I have to cook food a lot more and hotdogs and ramen get old quick! For someone that hates what most of the daily is, this article was refreshing! Do more stuff like this, more life&arts in general (liked the geocaching article too), and I could actually see myself becoming a fan.