I like to cook, as long as I don’t have to cook. Then it’s a chore. And I don’t like coming home at a quarter to six, and having to start cooking. Sometimes it’s a nice way to switch gears from work-mind, but I’m honestly more inclined to read a book or surf or go outside in the garden. But cooking is good. There’s something much more satisfying (and delicious) about good, homemade food that can’t be matched by fast food or food-in-a-box. Satisfaction.
The pleasures and joys of homemaking are real, and I wouldn’t dismiss them. Especially when there aren’t kids in the house who, unfortunately, quickly un-do all the doing you do! That’s frustration to me. At least with just us at home, things can stay clean for a bit after it’s done.
I cook much more on weekends, when there’s thyme for such pleasures. Watching a little Food Channel also gets me in the mood. Kind of like watching a naughty movie before bed. Sometimes I need a little encouragement to get into the kitchen.
Saturday night, I had a group of friends over, and I fed them baked salmon topped with a pear-peppercorn-brandy sauce, plus steamed green beans and my patented coconut mashed potatoes. (The latter especially made people go: “My God! These are so good! What did you do? Was it hard? Can I do it?”)
Last night, I made for myself sweet onions, stuffed with cayenne-sauteed chicken sausage, avocado, and tomato, then topped with fancy morel-jack cheese, and baked. Yum. (The accompanying refried beans were out of a can, but fancied up with more cayenne, plus cumin, per my wife’s procedure.) I’m making the same thing again tonight to see if I can get the onion to hold together a little better; the flaky layers made it a little tough to eat.
I also have a duck breast in the fridge, the options for which I am presently pondering.
So yeah, I like to cook, and I like to think I’m pretty good at it. I especially like knocking people out of their chairs on the first forkful.
And as others have said, the whole experience is made immeasurably better by (a) cleaning up as you go and (b) proper equipment. Re the latter, before my wife went to Atlanta, she got for me a Chicago Cutlery knife block that has improved my cooking stints from being merely enjoyable to simply a joy.
Anyone want to try my seared yellowtail with sake-miso sauce? No exaggeration, it’s sex on a plate.
Seriously, I am that spoiled woman! I now know what REAL food is so I no longer enjoy the restaurant crap like I used to. I also get drooling comments from the girls at work when I warm up a plate of shrimp scampi or some such that he has made.
Get this, she wants to put me through culinary school. Although she loves my cooking, she thinks my plating can use some work. She also believes that it can be taken to a higher level. Of course at that point we would be talking about champagne vinaigrette and beluga caviar, but I don’t think she would complain.
No one blinked about the $600+ monthly food budget for two, so I guess you fellow foodies are in the same boat?
I shudder to think what my cummulative monthly grocery bill is, not counting booze and eating out; I’d have to guess that it’s somewhere in the $250-$300 range (or more if I’m really on a cooking kick, but then a lot of it goes to waste), and I eat out 3-4 times a week (mostly weekends and one weeknight). This, as much as anything, makes me reluctant to return to being a starving college student.
I mentioned this once to the paternal unit in an attempt to make constructive noise on one of our irregular phone conversations. He recoiled in horror. Apparently, he and his wife feed on about $150/mo. 'Course, I know how and what she cooks, too, so I’m not exactly overwhelmed at her coupon clipping and bargin hunting skills. Me, I prefer food fresh and flavorful, not canned mushroom soup-sauced and loaded with salt.
Probably, taking into account exchange rates and the like. When I first moved out of the parents’ house properly, one of the first things my mum instilled into me was to never ever compromise on food quality. You can go without new clothes, new cds, whatever, but never ever compromise on your food. I still hold to that.
I love to cook (and would far more frequently than I do had I the time and the monetary resources to buy stuff) but the only drawback is feeding three very picky eaters - me, Mr2U and Mini2U. There isn’t a lot we can agree on.
I LOVE leftovers! I’ve been known to get three or four days worth of Thai food and eat it for every meal until it’s gone. Being single, I can’t possibly eat an entire roast, corned beef and cabbage, hamhocks and blackeye peas, spaghetti, mac’n’cheese, other pasta, pizza, BBQ beef, or any number of other things that I cook, in one sitting.
Johnny, it’s a hold over from when I was a kid, I guess. Luckily, Mr2U eats them, I have a 14 year old who, if he likes it, will usually finish most of whatever I make, and I have a large, fat dog as well.
Also called Seattle Communion Wafers, but I prefer this name for them, because eating too many of them is like a blow to the kidneys.
Recipe:
-Normal chocolate chip cookie recipe
-Reduce flour by 1/4 cup.
-When creaming the butter, add 1/3 cup of freshly-ground coffee, ground to Turkish coffee consistency (i.e., almost as finely ground as cocoa powder).
-Toasted pecans or hazelnuts are a very fine addition, but are not strictly necessary.
-You gotta warn guests that each cookie is roughly as potent as a small cup of coffee; overindulgence will be punished.
I love to cook. Luckily, I also don’t mind leftovers, because I live alone. My freezer is pretty much always full.
I love to bake, but am training myself to cook more main meals. I can’t live on sweets alone! I have more problems with cooking - I have a hard time sensing when things are done. When something says to saute for 5 minutes, I will saute for 5 minutes - even if it looks good at 3. Have to wean myself away from the timer for those kinds of things.
Last month I tried 25 new recipes - it was part of a challenge. This month, I’m slacking a bit. I’m still working on deciding what recipes will become my standards - I have 2 so far.
I’m the big cook in the Butler household… the wife is much better at sauces than I am, but I seem to excel in “big pot” cooking. She also bakes much better than I do, though I’ve become the “Bread master” in my house. Started with a bread machine, and moved to the Kitchenaid mixer (I love my mixer).
My mother is the standard stereotype of an New England Irish chef. If it didn’t come from a box/bag/can, and isn’t seasoned with anything more exotic than salt and pepper, it’s right in her abilities to cook it. I certainly didn’t go hungry as a child, but didn’t realize there was “good” food until I moved out and began cooking for myself. Lots of FoodTV, and Julia Child gave me the basics, everything else was learning on the “job.”.
Now I rarely want to go out to dinner, as my food is as good, or better than much of what I’m served at reasonably priced resturants. Don’t get me wrong, I love getting exotic foods at more upscale resturants, but those have become special treats, and much less common than they were prior to me moving out.
This was partly due to finances. I could cook large quantities of food, store, and eat leftovers, which tasted good for very little money.
Often now, we’ll watch something on TV, and a few days later we’re trying it. Good Eats is often our inspiration recently… though there a few things I disagree with on that show, but not too many.
Now if I could just find some part time cooking classes around here, I’d be all set! (especially bread classes) Oh, and a nice double convection oven, and a 6 burner 5star range!
Count me in as someone who loves to cook. I love to hear my husband smack his lips and tell me I’m a genius. Plus, I hate cleaning, and in my house, whoever cooks doesn’t have to clean. So not only do I get to do something I really enjoy, I don’t have to clean up after myself, which is even better.
Even if I didn’t like cooking, I’d probably do it anyway. My husband takes an hour and a half or two hours to make a dish that’d normally take me 30 to 45 minutes.
That sounds so good! I’ll be in Asheville on Saturday–I’m coming over to your house for cookies! Have you ever tried them with a few chocolate-covered espresso beans on top of each cookie? I bet that would be eye-opening.
I like to cook, but I don’t have time to cook a lot. My friends think I’m a good cook (but then they never see the things that don’t turn out right). I’m much better at baking than I am at cooking real food. If I had a little more confidence, I could be a pastry chef. I used to be very humble, but I’m over that now. When I get dessert at restaurants, most of the time I could do it better. Except for the espresso chocolate cheesecake at Weaver Street Market. That’s good stuff!
And if you’re from Chapel Hill, you may have been around for Silk Road, the Turkish tea-house (they may’ve reopened since they closed several years ago; I don’t keep up on Chapel Hill much these days). Rabbit-punch cookies are based off a cookie they served there–I improved them by making them nonvegan and adding the toasted nuts. Nonvegan baked goods are always better.
I think something else is in the place where they used to be, so I don’t think Silk Road is coming back. My brother loved that place. I found it was closed when he came to visit, and we wanted to go there, but it was closed. I thought maybe they were just closed for remodeling, but no, they were closed for good. My theory is they didn’t do very good business because of all the people who wanted to hang out there, but never bought any food.
I’ve been here long enough to remember the Lizard and Snake, too. I went there for lunch on the day it closed. My friends thought it was a dive, but I thought it was really cool. Good cheap food, good music. It’s hard to be in the restaurant business in Chapel Hill.
Could be. I stopped going there after I started dating my 22-year-old friend who had just broken up with our 40-year-old housemate; he kicked me out of the house in retaliation, and since we was part of the Silk Road Sufi crowd, I figured I oughtta let him have the cafe in the breakup :). He got the better end of the deal.
for such pleasures. Watching a little Food Channel also gets me in the mood. Kind of like watching a naughty movie before bed. Sometimes I need a little encouragement to get into the kitchen.
My friends thought it was a dive, but I thought it was really cool. Good cheap food, good music. It’s hard to be in the restaurant business in Chapel Hill.