Has Aloton Brown ever even seen a chicken?!

Lately I have made a conscience effort to become more hommakerly (is that a word?!- I elect that it is). Typically my family thinks of me as the girly one (sister that is). I don’t really know what that means or implies but I am told that I am “girly” a lot. I think I like that- (Although, I am not yet sure because I have not asked Dawn how I feel about it—but that is an entirely different blog). Despite my girlyness I would not consider myself very hommakerly, however, I would consider my younger sister Nicole to be so. She is the chef of the family. She inherited this talent naturally from my mother, who has in the past been told to open her own restaurant. I on the other hand have been known to burn water in a pot!

I am often surprised at how different Nicole and I are from each other. She feels a bit uncomfortable embracing her inner girly-ness, something that comes pretty naturally to me. Outwardly she is way more casual than me- inwardly I know she is just as much of “a girl” but feels awkward expressing it. Anyways, although she is afraid of outwardly embracing her inner girl, she is still an excellent homemaker type. She is probably one of the best cooks I can think of. I love it when I come home after months or years of being away and she makes me food. It’s nice when I come home to be taken care of!

Here is how it usually works when I am at home: It may be anytime between 12 and 5 and the cereal that I had at 8am has worn off and my tummy is growling. It’s usually the kind of hungry where you really want real food that is healthy and yummy and your so sick of cereal or crackers or pb&j that you just can’t take it anymore. This is when I find Nicole.

I say in my nice voice “oh hey, what are you up to?” Then we make polite chit chat for anywhere from 10min to an 1hour. (I know 1 hour may seem like a lot of time for suck-up style chit-chat; but sometimes I get to talking with my sister and I forget that I ever wanted anything from her in the first place.) Then, finally I just tell her “Nicole, make me food!” I make sure to use my playful/ whinny/slightly bossy voice, as I do not want to offend.

I think that secretly she loves it when I do this. She knows she is a good cook! She likes to cook! And I think she likes me… so. All in all, all I am really doing is asking her to do something she loves, for someone she loves. Hey, what can I say- I like to create opportunities for service. Anyways this little routine typically turns out triumphant. Coley usually comes up with some new fantastic concoction and I am a happy girl because I get to be fed and taken care of.

The reason I have even thought of this is because it is defiantly one of those days. I don’t really have anything that is much of edible in my apartment- I think I have pasta noodles and peanut butter. I’m no chef but I really don’t think that would be a good combo. (I would have to call and ask dawn though). Furthermore, despite my best efforts I am not feeling hommakerlyish today. I spent all day yesterday after school cleaning my apartment and today I just refuse to do anything but homework and the Arrested Development marathon that was on earlier this morning. (Mike! I finally saw this show- very funny!) Anyways, this means that not only am I hungry, but I am feeling that my latest efforts to become a better cook and homemaker have somehow been counteracted and erased by my unwillingness today. Perhaps in a pitiful effort to hold on to my homemaker-ness I have put the food network on whilst I study my never ending spanish assignments.

Oh how I love Alton Brown, he is part cook, part bill Nye the science guy and part supper hero! He was just hosting a show where chefs compete with strange ingredients like tripe and squid and catfish. It seems that each of these cooks were able to take their ridiculous ingredients and make something edible and delicious with it. Perhaps after I finish my Spanish homework I will venture into my kitchen and try to artistically combine my noodles and peanut butter and make something edible… then again… maybe not. (I wish Nicole were here!)