Charlotte - Roots and Rafters's Profile

@Blovoi The desk is made up of two Ikea Alex drawers and an Ikea Linnmon tabletop.

Beans were a big hurdle for me too because of the texture. Now I enjoy the occasional bean soup. Brussels sprouts and winter squash were easy once I discovered that they go well with bacon. And even the thought of eating butter made me gag for quite a number of years, but now I enjoy it.

I have no particular secret to learning to like things I used to hate -- except to cook each item differently than they were served to you as a child. If you've only had musty boiled brussels sprouts, for example, you're never going to get over the gag reflex if the next time you try them, they're boiled. Chop and saute with bacon instead, and you might learn to love them.

There are things I cannot get over my aversion towards, however, namely anything tasting of anise (fennel, black licorice), mealy grocery store tomatoes, summer squash like zucchini, salmon nigiri. Anyone have tips on those?

The law is an exercise in protectionism for big hotel chains. It does nothing to protect the people of NYC and ought to be thrown out.

"Rozanne" is my very favorite geranium because of its long bloom period and easy care. "Splish Splash" looks gorgeous in photos, but it's weedy and disappointing in real life, alas.

Geraniums contain the chemical geraniol, which is said to keep mosquitoes away. I suspect it's that compound that humans don't like the scent of either.

Chalk me up as another person who grew up in the suburbs and moved to the city in my 20s. In my case it was NYC. There were things I loved about it (arts and culture, ethnic food, lots of jobs in my field) but also things I grew tired of (hourlong jam-packed subway commute, hauling groceries on said subway). My husband and I tried the deep country and hated it, and now we're in a small New England town a 15 minute drive from an Ivy League university. Living here is great because we can actually afford a house (!!), but we plan to move back to NYC in 5-7 years.

The most essential first thing to learn is knife skills. You can find videos on YouTube showing how to chop, dice, mince, etc. That way, when recipes call for "1 cup chopped onion" you'll know precisely what they mean.

Obviously, the above requires that you get a good knife. People who already know their knife preferences can shop online, but as a beginner I'd suggest you go to a store like Williams Sonoma to handle a bunch of knives and see which ones feel good in your hand.

While you're honing your knife skills, start with veggie dishes like casseroles and soups. You can do summer soups like gazpacho or vichyssoise, which sound complicated but are dead easy to make, or easy vegetable casseroles like vegetable tian. There are a thousand recipes for each of those online -- follow the reviews to find one that's likely to be tasty.

I'm not sure if you're a vegetarian or an omnivore, but if you eat meat things like roasted chicken are very simple, and you can re-use the leftovers in derivative dishes (chicken soup, enchiladas, chicken salad) throughout the week.

Also consider cooking for others. Find one or two dishes that you can make well and are delicious, and then have a dinner party for your friends. The social aspect is one of the best things about cooking, and having a party will be a lovely reward for your learning to cook.

Realize that added sugar is lurking not just in desserts, but in things like bottled sauces, marinades, salad dressings, etc. There is often a lot more sugar than you realize in processed foods, including those that are nominally savory.

Watch not only the amount of added sugar, but the amount of carbs in general. Pasta, bread, beer, oatmeal, white rice, etc can spike blood sugar and lead to some unpleasant side effects later on. In small quantities all of these things are ok, but 3 meals a day based on starches probably isn't.

Don't think that just because someone is diabetic, that sugar substitutes will taste good to them, or that they necessarily want desserts made with sugar substitutes. The worst offender in this category is Splenda, which is marketed as tasting just like sugar. It doesn't. I'd rather eat no carbs for the rest of the day and eat a small amount of good chocolate or gelato than an entire big piece of sugar-free cake.

Just because the sugar is "natural" (like in fruit or whole-grain bread) doesn't mean that it doesn't count, or that it doesn't change blood glucose levels. Even a small glass of orange juice will give me a powerful headache and spike my blood sugar something awful.

One last thing: The person you're cooking for usually has a lot more practice than you in managing diabetes, so don't push foodstuffs on them and say "Oh I've read up on this, so you should be perfectly fine!" if they politely decline when you offer the first time. It's annoying to be told how to manage my diabetes by folks with no medical or nutritional training, when years of personal experience have told me what works for me and what doesn't.

You can actually buy unsweetened cashew cream in shelf-stable packaging. MimicCreme is one I've used. It's not a perfect substitute in everything (you'll never be able to make whipped cream from it, alas) but it subs very well in savory recipes where you'd normally use whole milk or half and half, and the sweetened version is pretty good as a coffee creamer.

My favorite quick weeknight dinner: broth, cilantro leaves, chopped red pepper, and grocery store dumplings. Fry dumplings, boil broth and red pepper, combine and top with cilantro. Add some pepper flakes or sriracha if you like spice.

You can freeze chimichurri and other sauces that folks are suggesting making, so don't feel like you have to cook up a big steak or something just to use the chimichurri up.

What a cute couple! Love the space as well. :)