Okay, I'll admit it. I'm not the world's best cook. In fact, I'm kind of a disaster in the kitchen. Not everything I make is a complete flop, but that's usually when dinner doesn't involve use of the stove or oven. Like salads. I can make salad.
Sample a few of my finest culinary moments:
1. One of the first "nice" dinners I made when Brandon and I were newly married. I made garlic mashed potatoes. Yummy, right? Well, only if you can tell the difference between a head of garlic and a clove. Apparently that makes a big difference. The poor dear ate about 6 spoonfulls before I noticed the tears running down his face.
2. I was making cornish game hens for Brandon and one of his friends who was visiting from out of town. Fancy, schmancy. Who knew you had to thaw these things AND remove the giblets before trying to stuff and bake them? Needless to say, we ordered pizza.
3. Every time I try to make pizza dough. Is it really that hard???
I could share more, but I won't. Now I'm sure that most of you will assure me that you, too, have had some mishaps in the kitchen. I believe you. But here's the thing: I've been trying my hand at cooking since I was around 6.
My sister and I made up this "recipe" where we buttered white sandwich bread, rolled it up, sprinkled (read: covered) it with cinnamon and sugar, drizzled it with powdered sugar icing, and MICROWAVED it all. I think we thought we were making cinnamon rolls. And we served this up pretty frequently to my parents. I never remember them turning it down. I must remember to make sure they get a nice nursing home someday. Anyway, I always loved to cook. I like feeding people. People love food, and I love to make them happy. I also love food.
So here's my dilemma: I have been using certain cooking practices for so long, that I'm not sure I really know the basics. But things are going to change around here. I'm making it my hobby to truly learn to cook well. Here are some things I'd like to tackle:
1. Meat. I overcook most meat. I am deathly afraid of underdone meat of any kind. There has to be a way to cook it so it's done and moist.
2. Cooking healthfully without sacrificing flavor or texture. I think many of my issues happen when I attempt to substitute ingredients to make the dish more healthy. I need to learn about how to properly substitute for things like white flour, white sugar, brown sugar, butter, and vegetable oil. Those things get me into trouble. And I really prefer not to use them.
3. Burning stuff. I am constantly multi-tasking. That's not about to get better with a baby on the way, so I need a kitchen timer that I will use. Our current timer gives you "warning" beeps at 10, 5, 2, and 1 minute marks. Which usually ends up scaring the ever-loving crap out of Brandon or me, or it annoys us so much that we don't use it.
4. Combinations of foods that complement each other. I'm notorious for "winging it" with some recipes, and that pretty much needs to stop. I vaguely remember a couscous recipe that had craisins. This should not happen.
5. Using spices and flavoring food properly. I'm ashamed to say it, but salt and butter were kind of my go-to flavor-enhancers. I seriously never put pepper on anything until I got married. I don't mind bland food too much, but it would be nice for food to have flavor.
Those are the big ones. Now, to come up with a list of tools and cook books I need to make this happen. Any input you have would definitely be useful. I like cook books with pictures. I have the following basic cook books:
Everything I have tried from here is good. I even had pizza dough success once. The only drawback is that there isn't a single color picture in the thing. Some drawings, but that's it.
Also good for basic stuff. Many more pictures. I bet there are a lot more informational parts to this that I have never read.
I'm usually sort of wary of recipes from someone's great aunt who thinks her Jell-O Salad is the best thing ever, but this thing has been pretty dependable.
My kitchen tool arsenal is actually fairly decent, I think. We registered for pretty nice things when we got married almost three years ago. I just need to be better about keeping them nice.
Any suggestions for resources for me? I'm ready to find my inner Julia Child.
2 comments:
It sounds like you cook like me, although I'm sure you cook better than you think. A great resource I've started using when cooking for my nanny family is "Betty Crocker Cooking Basics." It has lots and lots of pictures (even more than the Betty Crocker Cookbook!)and very clear directions. The only downside of this book is that there aren't as many recipes.
I read this like forever ago and tried to post a response from my phone but I didn't have service or something happened and it never happened... but I suggest getting the "Everyday Food" magazine! It's a Martha Stewart (not so fond of her personality lol...) thing. What I like about it is every recipe has pictures (which is so important isn't it?!). Maybe I just need pictures... but I need a good finished picture. Otherwise I'm basically not interested in cooking it... especially if it has a weird name and I don't even know the language/what it is. So yea, it has pictures. It's also inexpensive (like $20 for two years worth of subscriptions and you also get her "Whole Living" magazine... which I could care less about but it has a few recipes in there too). ALSO, in every magazine (one per month) there's a featured produce that's in season in each issues and then there's a slew of recipe that uses whatever produce it is. It's great.
Anyway, I enjoy getting them every month. I get all excited lol! I'm weird. Basically it's $20 well worth it in my opinion :). I save them and then refer back to them often. For instance, when I meal plan I'll whip out all of my May issues (I have one from 2012 and 2011 because I'm cool like that).
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