In my early college days at Santa Cruz people mostly ate instant mac and cheez, with a z because there is no dairy in it, and promptly died of scurvy. It was ugly, people were bleeding from the gums and loosing teeth, seriously it was awful, looked like this. But on a more serious note cooking helps you stand out from the crowd of dudes that are at your school and odds are .2% of them can cook. Look at those odds, you are in the top .2% just by learning how to heat stuff up with other stuff. Its that easy, well maybe not that easy but close. Also often times its cheaper to cook than to go out. A meal at the local Olive Garden will run you about $15 per person before drinks, with drinks there is no limit. So say you and your lady friend rack up a $50 dollar bill, thats a lot of store bought pasta and canned sauce when if you had cooked at home you could have made a wonderful Alfredo with shrimp, garlic bread, a salad for probably $20 or so, thats $30 left over to drink with.
Preparation is key
The date typically starts hours before the arrival or pick up, with the presentation of the space. The first step is, if you are entertaining at home, to pick up everything that you need, as I post recipes, shopping lists and suggestions will be added, and to clean the shit out of your living space and cooking and eating area. No one wants to see week old Natural Ice can lying about when they are eating, unless of course its Super Bowl but alas it isn't so clean up. Time for the cooking area. I find that it's impossible to cook with dirty dishes abound so deal with that in what ever way possible. I once had a roommate that if someone didn't do their dishes they would leave the offending utensils in the person's room, kinda passive aggressive but got the point across, clean up after yourself, Mom isn't going to do your dishes anymore.
Things You'll need:
- Knife, sharp (and get a decent sized knife ~5-8 inchs long)
- Something to cook
- Something to cook in
- Stuff to serve with
- Stuff to serve on, hopefully a matching set
