I’ve always been very resistant to the idea of cooking.  Making food, to me, means opening a package of Pop Tarts, pouring Cap’n Crunch into a bowl and/or microwaving leftover Chinese food.  A few months ago, however, I finally started using the George Foreman Grill (aka the Lean, Mean, Fat Grilling Machine) and have successfully cooked hamburgers and chicken for dinner. 

Last night, I used the oven.

The stove/oven in my apartment kitchen is brand-new and, even after living there for more than 2 years, it still looks exactly the same as it did when I moved in.  But it’s time to learn a new skill, and I figured the best way to get started is by taking a small step.  You know how in the pool, you can either wade in little by little or jump in and get cold all at once?  I’m a wade-in kind of guy.

So I bought french fries (or Freedom Fries if you want to be a tool about it) from Wegman’s and cooked them in the oven:

I preheated the oven to 450 degrees, cooked the fries on one side for 8-10 minutes and then flipped them with a spatula and let it cook for another 10 minutes.  They came out warm and delicious!  OK, so I microwaved the chicken fingers while the fries were cooking… but hey, I took a small step and successfully used the oven without burning down the kitchen.  I might have burned a finger, but that’s only because I realized too late that I don’t have oven mitts.  That’s at the top of my next shopping list.

Interesting side note – has anyone else noticed that Wegman’s now has Expectant Mother Parking?  It’s right next to the handicapped spaces and I think it’s a great idea.  Check it out:

I don’t know how it’d work at, say, Babies R Us, but it’s a great idea to have at grocery stores and other typical places where pregnant woman could very well be shopping.  By the way, how DO they set up handicapped parking at the Special Olympics, anyway?  I know I’m bastardizing, but I really am curious.

This was originally written in spring 2009.