In New York City, I have noticed there is rarely a reason to eat in. With so many restaurant and take-out options, who would want to use their stove? Most New York apartments don’t even allow enough kitchen space to prepare a meal. I, personally, am not one with a passion for cooking. Having a sister who is very talented at the trade has allowed me to do more tasting than cooking. Plus, I prefer the eating over the chopping, measuring, preheating and, worst of all, cleaning up. However, lately, I have been testing new ways to use my kitchen. As an attempt to save money and eat healthier, I have started cooking for myself. It didn’t start out so pretty. Whenever I am willing to prepare a meal for myself, I always choose the quickest, easiest option. This usually turns out to be the worst tasting. And, as an amateur, a book of recipes can be intimidating. What I have found to be the most useful is to choose two main ingredients I want my dish to include, then Google recipes with both those ingredients and choose from there. In my experience, when I Google a recipe involving pork and lentils, for example, dozens of recipes come up that could take anything from 25 minutes to three hours to execute properly. The key is to find what spices and ingredients are most frequently used with the meat and then have the guts to do a little experimentation. Part of learning to cook is taking risks. I’ve found some success in my meals lately, but I still have a lot to learn. Although the clean up never gets any easier, at the end of the day I feel that I’ve accomplished something on my own. — Courtney Centeno, account executive