I am no Julia Child. I was not made to whip, dice, chop, flambe, or marinade. I’ve messed up boxed mac and cheese, ruined pots and pans, and had to supplement burned meals with take out on many occasions.

In short, I stick to baking.

This past week I tried my hand at several complex recipes. Mind you, to me, complex is any meal that requires more than four ingredients and a microwave.

I browsed Pinterest for tasty dinner options for hours before deciding on two plausible ideas that even I couldn’t mess up: a chicken pasta dish and sour cream enchiladas.

I started out with the chicken pasta dish Monday night.

To enhance my newfound cooking experience I added some music to the mix. With the oven preheated and some jams on the radio, I began.

I cooked the chicken, combined noodles, and added sauce and cheeses. I even went the extra mile to add in diced tomatoes, which were more shushed than diced after I got them cut.

In under 30 minutes I successfully completed my first Pinterest recipe.

Or so I thought.

I realized my difficulty with noodles was not in the past as I took the first bite. The sauce and chicken tasted great, but combined with the chewy pasta, the meal wasn’t as successful as I hoped it would be.

I decided to redeem myself Wednesday night with sour cream enchiladas.

I fired up the oven again and put my iPod on shuffle and away I went. I was extra careful to make sure that this time all the food was cooked thoroughly.

I decided to make chicken enchiladas because I didn’t screw up the chicken in my first attempt Monday night. I know to quit while I’m ahead in situations like this.

By the time the dishes were clean and the counters were wiped down, my kitchen was starting to smell fantastic from the dish heating up in the oven.

After patiently waiting to see and taste my finished product, I opened up the oven and took out the pan. I was too hungry and excited to let the enchiladas cool off completely before I sampled my first bite.

“This actually tastes good!” I thought to myself. I don’t know if it was the extra cheese or time in the oven, but I finally made a dish fit for human consumption.

Now that I know I can actually make decent food, I think I’ll give some more Pinterest recipes a try this weekend.

If you see me aimlessly wondering around the grocery store this weekend, it’s because I’ll be looking for obscure ingredients and am not used to aisles outside of the frozen food section.

Happy cooking adventures to all of you this weekend!