Wow. My gf works many more hours than I, then drives 90 minutes to get home. So, at 8:30 or 9 pm we sit down for dinner. Almost always candles, and all portable electronics are stowed away. We fill each other in on what’s happened that day, and usually linger over wine until it’s nearly her bedtime.
Then I feed the dogs.
I like cooking, especially as I’ve grown up. Now that I live away from my parents and do not see them or my extended family as often as I used to, cooking helps keep me feel connected. I make malt-o-meal muffins and I remember when I was little and my mom would hold me while she stirred the batter and pretended not to notice when I stuck a finger in. The smell of fresh cornbread with honey takes me back to after-dinner conversations stretching into the night with my dad telling stories of growing up in the hills of west virginia. A loaf of bread broken straight from the oven feels like a hug from my grandmother. I can’t not cook. My cooking is rarely fancy or exotic, although I’m more than happy to try new recipes. I cook simply with a focus on tradition and nostalgia. Some of my favorite times in college were when a roommate brought me a family favorite and I’d make it for the whole apartment. A bottle of wine, a group of friends and a mom’s lasagna. I can’t imagine many things more pleasant than that.
I love cooking and have enjoyed the process since I was a kid.
Cooking relaxes me a lot. I found the process of working through a recipe (from a book or memory) to be very similar to building with Legos (another favorite activity). I like the problem solving and attention to detail required.
In college, I found that I could eat well for very little money if I spent my money on raw ingredients instead of ordering pizza every time I got hungry. The relaxation part really came into play during midterms and finals. Something as simple as making pancakes from scratch would calm me down enough to go back to studio with significantly less tension.
Another aspect of the cooking process that I enjoy is the cleaning part. I like doing the dishes as I go, so when I am finished and ready to sit down, the kitchen is clean and I get to just enjoy the meal.
I have not officially worked in a kitchen in over 10 years but it surprised me how much I enjoyed the process even though it was a job. When I still worked in restaurants, I would occasionally step in to help out and I was always able to get in my special cooking zone.
During my busiest times of the year at work, I always set aside at least 3 days a week to actually make my meal instead of going out. This has really helped me to get through some of those crazy work schedules.
Cooking also reminds me of family, which is a nice bonus now that I live pretty far from all of my relatives.
My dad was a very good cook. He mentioned once that he had actually had some professional training, and was certainly good enough to have worked as a chef in any restaurant; being as he was, however, he of course never did.
I basically learned to cook watching him. I started when I was about eight, because I was on a big Army kick (my favorite TV shows were Combat! and The Gallant Men), and I thought a real GI should be able to take care of himself.
I got turned on to The Galloping Gourmet when I was in junior high (my brother was convinced he was gay, but I knew better), and I was watching cooking shows on PBS by the '80s.
I’ve always been intrigued by ethnic cooking (British, French, Italian, German, Polish, Russian, Jewish, Cajun, Creole, Mexican, what have you) and like experimenting with new dishes all the time.
I love cooking for my daughter, 18, the only real family I have left. I wish she would take more of an interest in it, since I would really enjoy teaching her and working alongside her.
I can follow a recipe, but I don’t cook/don’t enjoy cooking. I seriously don’t understand the “but I like to eat, therefore I cook” and “I was a bachelor for a long time so I learned to cook” comments I’ve seen in this thread: I’m 42, single, and I love to eat (and I’m a chick), but I get by with frozen and pre-packaged food (sticking a frozen breast of chicken cordon bleu in the oven doesn’t count as “cooking”).
During the week I get lunch from the office building’s cafeteria (today was baked chicken with a side of mac-and-cheese). I get breakfast from McDonald’s once or twice a week, but otherwise I rarely eat fast food. If I’m out somewhere singing or listening to music I usually get dinner there, but I don’t go out to eat by myself. I might order a pizza once every 3-4 months. Mostly, though, it’s frozen/boxed/canned food for me.
I definitely take after the Irish side of my family in this regard; on the Italian side, both grandparents were excellent cooks.
This. If I could find good recipes for “I don’t know” and “whatever you want,” cooking would be a lot more fun. (And if I ask the 3-year-old for input, her request is always “chicken and broccoli and cake.”)
One thing I love is to play the Chopped Home Edition, wherein I rummage through the pantry and freezer to see what I can invent while I procrastinate about going shopping yet another day. Or I’ll buy an ingredient because it’s in season or on sale or interesting, and come up with some fun way touse it. Fortunately, my family isn’t too picky, and I’ve cooked enough to have reasonable skills, so everything is usually edible, and sometimes stellar.
I also enjoy baking, and I’m pretty good at it, but it’s nowhere near the exacting, measure everything science at my house that it seems to be everywhere else. I bake some sort of fresh bread about five days a week, and a dessert maybe four times a month, and very seldom do I dirty up even one measuring cup or spoon. Maybe that’s just experience again, and now I just do the science instinctively?
I do like to get the kids involved with choosing and preparing the foods they like. Not only do they seem more open to new foods when they help out, I think everyone should know how to cook a simple repertoire of meals before heading out into the big wide world. I cringe at the college kids I see in the grocery store, who apparently live on nothing but ramen and microwave meals - I know some do so because it’s cheap or convenient, but some just plain don’t know how to cook.
I mean the very act of setting aside a time that everyone stops everything and eats dinner, daily, together, is kind of a PITA. DON’T get me wrong. Sunday dinner, with a coworker and her girlfriend over, or even without them? Sure, it’s nice to sit down together, maybe once a week or twice a week. But every day we go home and have to have a sit-down dinner with the whole family together? I find myself wishing at least once a week that we could just do whatever, eat on our own schedules, when we get hungry, instead of having a formal time for all of us to sit down.
Let me assure you that formal is the same as yours: everyone’s very casual and all that.
So that’s all she does, from the time gets home to the time she’s in bed. Man, I got shit to do. I am currently in school, so I have homework to do. We usually eat dinner as soon as I get home, so it’s between 5-6 pm. A little early, but I like it because I get it over with. Then I still have probably 2 hours of homework. Then I spend an hour or so doing fun stuff by myself - crafts, or video games. By then it’s what, 9 pm? I spent the next couple of hours playing games with my SO, sometimes video games or maybe watching a movie with him.
It’s not like I don’t have time with him. I just hate the formal process of fooooood. On the weekends, too, man! I get bored of eating! If I was on my own I’d probably eat some chips or corn flakes and go to bed.
On the other hand, I promise I am appreciative of being lucky enough to get a man who can cook, and who cooks divinely, making up his own sauces (to me this is like whaaaaat), experimenting in the kitchen, making things lively, worrying about what I like and don’t like. I try to be as low-maintenance as possible. I will eat almost anything. Last night he made mahi mahi, with lemon dill rice and pan-fried zucchini. It was fucking amazing. I am the luckiest girl in the world and wouldn’t trade him for anything, and I make sure he knows it. 
I like to as it is a creative process, a form of art. However I don’t like to when it gets more mundane, like painting a house instead of making a mural. I also like that people enjoy what I cook.
I enjoy it, but it can be a chore cooking for one. I feel a sense of pride if I make a good meal. That feels good.
As a general rule I consider cooking to be a bother. I can do it, and will if necessary, but especially if it’s just me eating I’d rather go out or grab a cold Pop-Tart. My motto is “If I walk through the kitchen with a plate in my hands and nothing jumps on it, it’s time to go out”.
I like the end product when it comes out. But I’m always very critical of myself. I do in so infrequently that my prep work takes forever. But I do like it when the who thing comes together the right way.
Just did some chilli the other day. Too much liquid.
Well, to be fair she feeds her horses and tends to the chickens as well. When you’re our age you’ll learn to chill a bit.:D. ((((Hugs))))
Did you try stirring in some masa flour or cracker meal? 
Not particularly. I used to when I had someone to cook for, but being single takes all of the fun out of it.
I discovered that, if you really want to enjoy your favorite dish, learn to cook it yourself. You’ll reach the point where you can out-do those 5-star chefs, at a much lower price.
I think you’re taking for granted a lot of the knowledge and technique you picked up along the way. Recipes generally assume some level of cooking competence and understanding of terms and basic techniques and also being able to adjust a bit on the fly and know when something looks “right” or is cooked through. When I was learning, I made a lot of mistakes along the way with perfectly good recipes because I either didn’t understand the techniques involved well enough, I didn’t use my judgment and adjust ingredients when there may have been discrepancies between my ingredients and the author’s (like, for example, the “large” onions at my grocery store are HUGE and generally 1/2 of one constitutes a “large onion” for a recipe), adjust times based on how things were coming along, etc.
So, while it’s not that difficult for basic recipes, saying the directions are right there understates the skill involved. For example, just tell someone who hasn’t cooked before to brown some meat and see what comes back. I almost guarantee you that you’ll get some gray, not browned, meat.
That’s a little condescending. I’m going back to school to try to earn a little better money. Other than that, the rest of what I do with my time is kind of “chilling” - I enjoy my life, and that’s all that matters. I highly doubt I’ll ever have a life where I do little to nothing after work and call it a day, though!
Naw, that is totally not the case. Ok, one of the meals I make 1 or 2 times a year are cheese blintzes. They are totally not good for you, so they are a holiday meal.
Sure, the directions are there. But to make a perfect golden brown crepe, thin, but thick enough to hold the cheese in, and not burn it or undercook it? That takes skill and practice. Directions don’t help with that. Hell, try cooking a perfect piece of chicken, first time around, with no help other than the directions, and not burning it or undercooking it.
Some things are only learned by trial and error, and by practice. And if you have a few failures under your belt you might decide you can’t cook.
Oh! Here’s a good one. Rice. I cannot cook rice and thus am a failure as an Indian. But you know what? While my SO can cook rice on the stovetop and make it come out well, he chooses not to - because it is a pain in the ass. It’s better to cook it in the rice cooker that does it exactly. And there’s another thing that directions don’t help with at all.
I’ll tell you the thing that pisses me off more than anything in recipes. “Salt to taste.” fuck you, at least give me some idea!
[QUOTE=Anaamika;16721518
Oh! Here’s a good one. Rice. I cannot cook rice and thus am a failure as an Indian.
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Just boil it and strain it like pasta. You can’t screw it up. (And it’s a trick I first learned from a South Asian restaurant.) But rice cooker works, too.
I don’t know if there really is a good starting point. Sometimes I don’t add any. Sometimes I add a lot. It really all is “to taste.” Start with less than you think and keep adding and tasting until it tastes right for your preferences. I personally have no idea how much additional salt I add when I make a stew, for instance. I just add about a half-teaspoon to teaspoon at a time (depending on the quantity of stew), and just taste until it’s just right to me. This applies to salting to taste at the end, before serving. While cooking, if it’s something like a stew, I way undersalt as the liquid evaporation concentrates the salinity of the solution as it cooks. So that’s where experience and knowledge comes in.
I do not like to cook. I find eating to be a real pain in the ass, and I wish it did not need to be done every day. I only like a limited number of foods, a lot of food smells and tastes are not to my liking.
Even though I don’t have anything better I am doing with my time, I still hate to waste any of it making food for one. When the grandkids are here, I do make an effort to cook, usually with the eldest helping me. Otherwise I pretty much live on take-out.
While I do not like to eat, cook, or watch people cook “live”, I watch a ton of cooking shows. I think it’s fascinating to watch people on TV turn random ingredients into food that people like to eat. And I watch those shows while I am eating my take-out.
I enjoy cooking for my family. It just feels right to make a meal for everyone, even if we only spend 10 minutes together eating it. I have no idea what I’m doing, but most things turn out pretty good. Some days it’s simple (yesterday was grilled cheese burgers, corn on the cob, and baked potato wedges), other days it gets more complex (spaghetti and meatballs from scratch). Weekends are for delivery and carry out, and I rarely cook when I’m alone (that’s pho or vindaloo carry out time!).
Oh, and mark me down for I could cook all day if I didn’t have to clean.