My Recent Thoughts RE Cooking

It was too hot to cook last night (we don’t have central air just a window unit). So we went out for Italian. I had eggplant parm which I can’t have at home, because Anthony doesn’t eat eggplant. Knowing I wouldn’t have a recipe to blog about today, I decided to do some research on the basics of cooking. I wanted to know what I know already and what I still need to learn.

I went on About.com: Busy Cooks first. The first thing you need to learn is how to read a recipe. I thought I already could read a cooking recipe, but it turns out I don’t read it correctly. Go figure. Who would have thought that the order of the words in an ingredient list was important? I’ve been doing it wrong all along. Example: 1 cup nuts, chopped does not mean the same thing as 1 cup chopped nuts. The first means take 1 cup of whole nuts and chop them, the second means take 1 cup of chopped nuts. This could get really confusing for me now. Luckily that was the only thing I didn’t know about reading a recipe! If it wasn’t, I would seriously think I was a contender for Work Cook in America. The rest of the stuff on this list of things to know is not important to me: How to Use A Microwave? Really?! Meal Planning?? I think I’ll pick my own meals based on what I like, not on the food pyramid and by color. Please. Do people really do this? Next site please.

I wondered around the internet for a bit and then thought, what am I doing?! No matter how many articles I read, I’m never just going to apply this stuff to my cooking. I’m just being real. Did we see any improvement in my cooking skills after researching that? Nope! I believe each person has their own cooking style. I still think it’s important to figure out how to use a knife, so that there isn’t blood all over your kitchen. Other then that, cook how it suits you to cook. I might not look like a professional in the kitchen and my final product might not look like you ordered it at a swanky restaurant, but my food usually tastes pretty good (lately anyway).

Does my new found belief in myself mean that this blog is over? Ha! No way! I still hate cooking, I’m still suffering from kitchen anxiety, I still can’t just throw something together, and I haven’t tackled some of the foods I really want to (such as risotto, chicken pot pie, beef wellington (this is because I love Gordon Ramsay) and something from the Top Chef cookbook (this is a terribly intimidating book for me) . Plus I haven’t made and blogged about the things I can cook: meatloaf, lasagna, and enchiladas! Also I love food and want to share meals that are a wonderful experience to eat and one’s that miss the mark. If nothing else this blog should give you some news ideas to spice up your own weeknight meals.

Also here is a random picture of one of the loves of my life: Max

He is a very kissable pup!