My first foray into soup cooking continued the apparent trend of "I can't cook anything and have it come out the way it's supposed to." The broth is relatively tasty, but I apparently misjudged the amount. It looked plentiful enough in the "broth" stage, but by the time I'd added the other ingredients for the soup, I didn't even have enough broth to cover them. It's more "stuff" than "soup," at this point. The celery is too hard, the pasta too soft. It could probably have used more salt and pepper. I give it a failing grade, but I still need to eat the rest of it, because I don't think anyone else in the house will. Sigh.
After spending the entire afternoon checking on the soup and trying to figure out how to make it turn out properly, I wasn't in the mood to cook anything else. So dinner was the soup, bread and cheese, red peppers, and celery with peanut butter. It was understandably unsatisfying.
I really do need someone to show me how to do this properly. If I watch someone, I can learn relatively quickly. I just can't seem to work from recipes, and I have (almost) no practical experience in cooking. I trust myself with pasta, eggs, very simple meat sauces, and maybe a few other things... but nothing more than that.
Anyone feel like giving me cooking lessons?