Cooking

I very recently (in the past month or so) have been really interested in cooking. In the 3 years that Michelle and I have been married, I can count the number of times that I cooked dinner on 1 hand. And each time I cooked, dinner consisted of overdone scrambled eggs and underdone toast. I hated to cook. Cooking was the most stressful thing to me. Everything happened so quickly and I was never prepared. But I recently tried to make a couple things and it turned out ok which gave me a lot of cooking confidence. I made a decent batch of divinity and a decent batch of peanut butter fudge. Then Michelle and I saw Julie and Julia and I started making dinners. So far I've only got me feet wet with casseroles, but they have all turned out pretty well. Cooking is no longer stressful and I really enjoy it now. I'm going to crack open The Joy Of Cooking and try my hand at some of the fancier kinds of cooking. Occasionally I'll share some recipes that worked. Today, I'll share the easiest peanut butter fudge recipe in the world (from Alton Brown):

1 cup peanut butter (I recommend chunky to add texture)
1 cup butter
1 lb powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Microwave peanut butter and butter on high for 2 mins. Stir and microwave for another 2 mins on high and stir again. Add vanilla extract and (sifted) powdered sugar and mix into peanut butter/butter mixture. Pour mixture into lightly greased 8 X 8 inch pan and cover with wax paper and refrigerate until chilled. Slice into pieces and store in air tight container for up to 1 week.
***Warning: this recipe creates an insanely sweet fudge. I used about 3/4 lb of powdered sugar and it was still so sweet that you bypass the sugar high and go straight to sugar coma.

Easy peasy. I added melted chocolate to the top for a Reese's effect and it was pretty good.