Spice & The Single Girl - From the Beginning

8:00 pm. Tuesday night. Home.  Once again I stand here staring at my toaster oven with mixed emotions of contempt and gratitude.  I take a sip of wine as I check the timer.  Five minutes left on my eggplant parmesan.  Yes, I am cooking eggplant parmesan in a toaster oven - homemade, from-scratch, farmer's market eggplant parmesan.  This is part art + part science experiment + part necessity +  part curiosity.  This is Home Ec meets College Dorm meets Gordon Ramsey meets my life.

I am 28.  In my food life, I went from mother to dorm to domestic - only to find myself recently single and living in a bachelor apartment.  Bachelor apartment. As in one room, no kitchen.  Fully equipped with a microwave and a mini-fridge.

Up until a few months ago, I was cooking quiches and Sunday roasts and enchiladas and apple pies and homemade soup and scones - all in what now seems like a spacious 60 square-foot kitchen.  And now ... now ... well, now, I am staring a toaster oven, unplugging a hot plate, juggling counterspace and trying to figure out how the hell to cook for just one.

Don't get me wrong - I love to cook!  I love healthy, fresh, in-season food.  I love cooking for others and baking from scratch.  I love fresh vegetables and farmer's markets.  I love herbs and spices and everything nice-s.  I love trying to cook something new.  I love entertaining guests.  And I even love a good challenge.

And a challenge this is - this 25 x 41 inches of counterspace, this freezer-less minifridge, this cupboard-space challenged kitchenette, this cooking for one.  But I thought I must not be the only one - living in a Bahchelor apartment, trying to eat healthy and on a budget.  So to you solo chefs, you Bachelor-pad bakers, even you full-kitchen singles and you voyeurs along for the ride - I present to you:  Spice & the Single Girl:  Adventures in Hot-Plate-Toaster-Oven Cooking for One.  Bon Apetit!