Whether you’re a freshman feeling hungry for fresh-cooked food (from a kitchen other than the BLUU) or a senior sifting through a snack shortage, you can discover the joy of preparing meals from your very own home away from home. Simply choose one of our easy to follow recipes based on your level of experience and cooking goals. Are you looking to impress your friends at the next sorority movie night, get to a loved one’s heart through their stomach, or merely sate yours without breaking your budget? Scroll on, ravenous readers, because we have a recipe for you. Now let’s get cooking!
Level One: Dorm Room Delicacies
So, you’re an adult now. Kind of. Maybe your family has lumped you with the cooking for years, or maybe you now find yourself alone in the kitchen for the first time (which is unlikely, since you share it with your entire dorm). Either way, after high school it’s tough to find time to settle into your new academic routine, your social life, and still find time to actually prepare meals for yourself. Never fear: we’ve got some good failsafe recipes for when the BLUU food has got you feeling blue.
Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies
1. Go to the store and pick up the following: semisweet chocolate chips, flour, butter, a large egg, baking soda, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and a tube of pre-made chocolate chip cookie dough (set this aside in your room’s mini fridge).
2. Preheat your communal kitchen’s oven to 375 and lay out all your ingredients. While you wait, this is a great time to work on that reading you’ve been putting off.
3. Combine the dry ingredients first, setting the chocolate chips aside for later. Then combine the egg and the melted two tablespoons of butter, making sure no clumps of
flour remain. If they haven’t already been eaten by your or your roommate, add the chocolate chips.
4. Scoop spoonfuls of dough onto a baking sheet and place in the oven.
5. In the event that someone turns off the oven, steals your cookies, or the baking otherwise goes awry, retrieve the tube of dough from your own mini fridge and use that instead. No one will taste the difference anyway.
Pesto Pasta
1. Purchase the following items: a box of penne pasta, a jar of pesto, a bag of baby spinach, one white onion, a jar of kalamata olives (optional), parmesan cheese, and a pack of your favorite Italian sausage (ignore any “that’s what she said” jokes that may ensue).
2. In a large pot, boil some water (it should easily cover all of the pasta you intend to cook) and add two pinches of salt. Add however much pasta you think you need, and don’t bother to calculate the exact amount because it will just be incorrect anyway. When the pasta is “al dente” (meaning literally “to the tooth” but figuratively “that nice space between crunchy pasta cracker and sad soggy noodle”) pour it into a strainer and set it aside.
3. In a skillet, heat some olive oil. Add about half of the chopped white onion. When the onion starts to sweat, add the sliced sausage. Flip the sausage over once the pieces start to crisp on one side.
4. Add the spinach (yes ALL of it), the olives, the pasta, and the pesto sauce. Stir until the spinach shrivels to an appropriate amount and everything is tinged with green.
5. If it’s just you, dump the contents of the skillet onto a plate. If you’re cooking for friends, portion it into however many bowls you need, and then add Parmesan to taste. Serve hot. Congratulations, you’re now an Olive Garden.
Level Two: Campus Crush Cookin’
If you’re no longer a freshman, chances are that by now you’ve gone through the first throes of “wow there are way more pretty people here than I’m used to, and I can meet them all!” Maybe you’ve found yourself a cutie in your chem lab, or a stud in your sociology lecture, or maybe you’re just feeling a galantine’s day with your best friend. Want to step it up a notch? We’ve got you covered.
Romantic Soufflé Dinner for Two
1. You’ve had a year to settle in, so chances are you might have some basics on hand: flour, eggs, butter, milk, and salt, at the least. Simply pick up some paprika, nutmeg, gruyere and parmesan cheeses, and maybe another dozen eggs and you’ll be ready to soufflé all day!
2. Get out a large mixing bowl, a whisk, and a cheese grater. Lay out all of your ingredients and preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
3. While you wait for the oven to heat, assess your options: if you’re hosting a friend in the sorority house, consider where in this communal space you’ll sit. If you’re in GrandMarc, ask to borrow a friend’s tablecloth and lay it out on your table (hopefully you’ve already notified your roommates of your plans to dine in this evening). If you’re allowed, light a couple of candles for ambiance. Maybe a single rose in a vase, if you’re feeling fancy. Set out clean plates and silverware and consider tidying up the living space a bit.
4. Come back into the kitchen and then immediately come to your senses. You thought you were making a soufflé? That’s funny. But seriously, break out your Favor app and just order a couple of classic cheese soufflés from Rise café, making sure that they arrive before your date does. A much wiser decision in the long run.
5. Don’t forget to clean up the mess in the kitchen. Or do- it will make it seem like you successfully pulled off this nearly impossible dish on your own, somehow. Very impressive. Then sit down and enjoy!
Level Three: Adulting with Alcohol
Yeah, you’re an upperclassman now, so what? Oh, wait, that’s right: you can drink now. Legally! And that means you are officially not only permitted but also encouraged to get nice and classy with your cooking and, dare I say it, tipsy in your kitchen. Tequila chicken! Shrimp in vodka sauce! The possibilities are as endless as your Total Wine budget allows them to be. With that in mind, give this a try…
Coq au Vin
1. A classic French dish that’s about as easy to cook as it is to pronounce! But you can handle it; you’re an adult now, right? Right? You’ll need the following: two to four chicken thighs, butter, red wine (preferably a burgundy or pinot noir), mushrooms, flour, onion, bacon, thyme, chicken stock, shallots, salt and pepper, and that one friend from freshman year who actually took French as a foreign language. Just in case.
2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Season chicken thighs all over with salt and regular ol’ black pepper. Place bacon in a large, oven-proof skillet and cook over medium-high heat, turning occasionally, until evenly browned. Remove the bacon but leave those delicious drippings in the skillet to mingle.
3. Increase heat to high and place the chicken, skin-side down, into skillet. Cook in hot skillet until browned, 2 to 4 minutes per side. Transfer chicken to a plate; drain about half the remaining drippings from the skillet. Lower heat to medium-high; sauté mushrooms, onion, and shallots with a bit of salt in the skillet until golden and caramelized (like that perfect tan you’ve always dreamt of).
4. Invite the flour and butter into your vegetable soiree and stir until completely combined, about 1 minute. While you stir, this would be an excellent time to uncork that wine…
5. Open the red wine: a sip for you, a splash for the chicken. Repeat. Chef’s recommendation: have an extra bottle on hand, since this is when your guests normally start wandering into the kitchen asking how they can “help.” Bring the wine in the skillet to a boil while scraping browned bits of food off of the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Stir bacon and thyme into red wine mixture; simmer until wine is about 1/3 reduced, 3 to 5 minutes. Pour chicken broth into wine mixture and set chicken thighs into skillet; bring wine and stock to a simmer.
6. Cook chicken in the oven for 30 minutes, approx. one episode of Friends. Then do the thing that every single cooking show ever always displays for you: spoon those yummy juices over the chicken and continue cooking for about 30 minutes more. Momentarily contemplate going to culinary school.
7. Place skillet over high heat and reduce pan juices, skimming the excess fat off the top as needed until your sauce is nice and thick (or thicc, if you prefer). Remove the sprig of thyme, channel your inner salt bae, and then serve and bask in the praise of your friends and peers.