Cooking Out, Dining Out, Dinner, Quick PostKerry Alaric CheeseboroJanuary 27, 2013balsamic, basil, box, Cooking In, Dinner, dried, herbed, herbs, Italian, jar, linguine, linguini, meat, oregano, parsley, pasta, pork, Quick Post, red, sausage, store-bought, tomato, tomato sauce, vinegarComment

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Barilla Linguini and Classico Tomato Sauce with Italian Sausage | with Dried Basil, Dried Oregano, and Balsamic Vinaigrette

PEOPLE ALWAYS ASSUME THAT I have a natural prediliction for the things that I currently enjoy doing. They are shocked to find out that almost all of the photos in this entire blog are taken with a pocket point & shoot camera that cost me less than $100.

"But how do you get that simple little camera to take those amazing photos?" By reading the manual and instructions that came with it to figure out exactly what the camera could do and how to do those things.

The same goes with my experience with my friends and most "tech" stuff. And computer stuff. And their defeatist "inexperience". So they call me: "Hey, Kerry. So I just got a new "blank" and was hoping you could come over and help me set it up."

"Was there no manual?"

"I don't know; I think it's still in the box."

So why don't you just use that?

"I don't really no about this stuff and you do."

What they fail to realize is that I know about this stuff because I read the manual/instructions! Every time. So what they're really telling me is they want me to stop doing what I'm doing, schlep to their place and waste my time setting up their equipment because they don't want to read. As in, learn!

And I have found the same to be true of my friends who resist cooking because they choose to believe that it is beyond their skill set. To make even the most pedestrian dishes. Such as the following simple linguini and tomato sauce with sausage, to which someone remarked upon seeing it, "See, I could never make anything like this."

Really?! A box of dried Barilla Linguini. A jar of Classico Tomato Sauce with Italian. And instructions on both boxes of how to cook both. One burner on HIGH, one burner on LOW. Stirring both for less than ten minutes. And, if you want to get creative, adding your own dried herbs, such as the basil, oregano, and parsley I added to this particular dish.

There's a familiar phrase in the food world: "You eat first with your eyes." Well, you cook first with your eyes as well. Which means, for most of us, reading the instructions!