One thing everyone misses about home is the food.

We often find ourselves going out to eat while in school or ordering a pizza late at night when we’re studying. OrderUp has become a quick dinner fix and the overflow of to-go boxes in your trash bin are a source of daily guilt. However, no matter how much we might dread the process — the food that you make from scratch is healthier and not to mention, way tastier. Here’s why I love to cook (and you should too).

I come from a long line of people who love to cook so when I came to college, my family gave me a lot of cooking supplies in hopes that I too would carry on the family tradition of cooking homemade food. Of course, during my freshman year, the dining hall was my life. It was when I moved off campus that I started to really enjoy making food for myself.

I started off with cooking very simple recipes. Pasta, frozen pizzas and scrambled eggs. It wasn’t until I started craving more extravagant tastes that pushed me to really start cooking.

Starting out, I would look up easy and quick recipes on Pinterest or get some simple recipe advice from my mom. When I realized how easy cooking really was, I started to enjoy it a lot more. Once I got good at cooking the basic stuff I eventually went on to cooking more complex things. I even made my own loaf of bread! It wasn’t that hard once I started learning techniques.

I didn’t realize how important it was to learn how to cook until I realized how much money I was saving by just buying ingredients instead of going out to eat all of the time. I also felt a lot more confident in myself after making a delicious meal for my roommates.

You often don’t realize how important the skill of cooking is until you actually look at the meal you’ve created and realize that not only does it look beautiful but it tastes delicious too. You no longer miss the taste of home because you have it right there in your own kitchen. It also doubles as a great skill to show off when you’re trying to impress someone…

Grab your aprons, everyone. It’s time to put down the take out menu and start cooking!

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By Catherine Paletta

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