Let’s take a trip down a not so long memory lane to my first blog post when I mentioned that morale was running low for my turn to prepare dinner. Now, fast forward to this Wednesday when Bianca put herself, Kathleen, and I in a group text simply saying, “What do y’all think about fajitas?” I instantly tried to think if I had promised to go to dinner with them that night or something I had said that would relate to fajitas. Then it hit me. 

I replied, “Wait it’s our turn to cook dinner?” I got no response to that question because all I needed to do was look at the calendar where it clearly said that Kaili, Kathleen, and Bianca should arrive to Ada’s apartment one hour early to prepare dinner.

It was my turn tocook dinner for the nine girls in the program as well as our two program coordinators, Ada and Shannan. All of my fears were slowly becoming true. If I’m being honest, I had not done much cooking over the past three weeks. Sure, after the first week, I made spaghetti, but that was extent of my cooking skills beyond putting a sweet potato in the oven.

As our deadline for our shopping list slowly approached, the group chat became more active trying to think of ideas. We decided on shrimp tacos, black bean salad, chips, guacamole, salsa, and ice cream sandwiches for dessert. We sent Ada and Shannan our shopping list Saturday, and then Sunday arrive to prepare the meal.

I knew I did not want to have anything to do with cooking the shrimp because that was something that could be messed up. So, I instantly put myself in charge of chopping things. I chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, avocado, onions, garlic, etc. If it needed to be chopped, I instantly volunteered. Kathleen aided me in chopping things and measuring different things to put in the black bean salad, but the shrimp tacos part of the meal was left to Bianca. She carefully chopped the vegetables that would go with the shrimp and sautéed everything perfectly. Overall, the meal tasted delicious, and we got good reviews from our cohort.

Making a meal for a large group of people was more than a first time thing for me because it was something that pushed me out of my comfort zone. If you had asked me six months ago could I come together with a team to prepare dinner for a fairly large group, I would have laughed and asked what place we would get food delivered from.

Growing up, my mom would always cook meals for us at home. When we were younger, on Saturday or Sunday mornings, she would make breakfast. Then for dinner, our options were limitless, but some of my favorites included crawfish etoufeé, gumbo, salmon, and pork chops with rice and gravy. Of course, I would help out in the kitchen with small tasks like cooking the rice or side vegetable we would have with the meal. I was never in charge of cooking a whole meal. (I think my dad and younger brother were thankful for that.)

After cooking dinner for an entire group on Sunday, I realized that surely I could make myself something my mom usually makes at home. Monday night, after going to the gym, I went to the market and bought salmon. I seasoned it just like my mom would and put it in the oven. I had my infamous sweet potato on the side with sautéed bell peppers and onions. I don’t mean to hoot my own horn, but it was good. It wasn’t as good as my mom makes it, but even my suite mates were making comments about how the apartment smelled good.

Cooking a Sunday dinner for the group is just one example of how I have been pushed out of my comfort zone in the right ways to learn new things about myself. Had I not been forced to cook a meal for the group, I don’t think I would have cooked a meal for myself these two months. Needless to say, I think there will be more cooking taking place in our apartment; however, it will not be something that happens every night.