Had a fabulous time talking cooking when my brother and sister-in-law visited. Pam mentioned gadgets and pans (“I have this jalapeno pepper holder for pepper poppers from the grill! Oh, have you ever cooked on wooden planks?”) and we tried to find an open kitchen supply store in Greenville
Pam has the amazing talent of making meals look effortless. You imagine that behind her orderly, streamlined kitchen there’s a real working kitchen, where minions toil silently and ceaselessly, sliding finished dishes through a hidden cupboard. When I cook for a crowd it’s like a cartoon—I knock over pans, stack baking sheets in precarious piles, and dirty more utensils and pots than most people own.
I’m not sure when my love of cooking developed. Early on in the marriage I made stuffed green peppers from The Joy of Cooking, and found no joy in it. “After all that work,” I lamented, “it’s just—stuffed green peppers!” My husband said, “You don’t need The Joy of Cooking. You need the I Hate to Cook Book.” But at some point I began reading and collecting cookbooks, learning more about the science of cooking, and trying more recipes than the few my mother taught me. My collection of cookbooks began to overtake my pioneer history books, my books about writing.
What about you? Love cooking? Hate cooking? Are you messy like me, or so tidy your relatives surreptitiously check your trash for takeout packages?
Love cooking. Sometimes I'm messy, sometimes I'm neat. One important trick I learned: mise en place. Means to prep before the actual cooking. It really makes a difference on the mess scale.
ReplyDeleteCarole
Welcome back
ReplyDeletevery nice. I also enjoy cooking and it is quite messy, so I don't do it often. I got Ali a card once that said "I'd cook, but then I'd have to do the dishes" Always enjoy your cooking.
ReplyDeleteWell, I'm so glad that you and my husband love cooking! I cook because I must eat. Never learned as a child, Mother never had the time to teach me. My problem also is where do I store all those nice "gadgets" that make cooking fun? I try to do with things I have instead of buying more gadgets because they keep spilling out of the cupboards. I'm also, now, fighting with the choice of buyins gadgets and giving the money to some charity that can better use it. But, as I said, I'm so glad you and Sam love cooking! Just wish I did.
ReplyDeleteI have a set repertoire, about a dozen dishes, that I enjoy making, but I'd just as soon have someone cook for me. My mother used to collect and read cookbooks like I read novels. Sadly, she almost never cooked. Go figure.
ReplyDeleteYou know me....I love to bake. I also enjoy cooking meals and is so much fun when the other half is helping and we're concocting this dish with that and this spice. I guess I enjoying baking more than cooking because I love sweets. I seem to clean up as I go along. My grandmother would run out of things to use and it took forever to do the dishes. Me I just want to relax after I feed my tummy!! Judy
ReplyDeleteI love cooking for my family though it creates mess in kitchen but I enjoy doing it for my family.After cooking,I clean my kitchen untill it looks good and sophisticated.
ReplyDeleteI have a love/hate relationship with cooking. Or perhaps I should say a little-girl-with-the-curl relationship. When I'm in the mood to cook, I love it and whatever I'm cooking comes out yummy. When I'm not in the mood to cook, I hate it and whatever I cook turns into a disgusting mess that would kill off a buzzard.
ReplyDeleteI CAN cook, but I've given it up in the interest of out health. I tend to load things up with more fat than is healthy. I believe that old "the three secrets to French cooking are butter, butter, and butter" rule. Oh, and cream....I put cream in everything. And the kitchen looks like it's been ransacked by a SWAT team looking for a meth lab when I'm finished. Take out is our friend.
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