* Warning: If you are likely to be offended by the assertion that any normal member of species homo sapiens can learn to cook, move along.
Annapurna, Hindu Goddess of Cooking
"Oh, I can't cook!" *titter titter*
There it is, yet again, third time this month, coming from the mouth of an otherwise accomplished, intelligent, evolved, informed person.
"Oh, I can't cook."
Delivered in a faux self-deprecating tone, with equal notes of pride and defiance--the same tone a person might use to declare, "Oh, I don't check price tags." Or, "Oh, I can't understand these newfangled cell phones." Or "Oh, I can't be bothered with sunscreen."
Tra-la, tra-la, oh how darling and quaint, you odd people who go through all that trouble to make what you eat in your own kitchen. That is so amazing! I think of my center island as a great place to display flowers, but goodness, you actually chop things there. How ever do you do manage!? Little ol' me, I don't even know which end of a knife to pick up! I don't even own a pan! I use my oven for storage! Tra la, tra la!
If that's you...oooh, baby, you make my blood boil, and I'm not going to apologize for saying that.
Yes, you can cook. Or rather, you could cook, provided that you had the inclination to learn.
- Anybody with a normal IQ and two fully functional upper appendages can cook.
- Aboriginal peoples squatting in the dirt somewhere in the jungles of Bumfarkistan can build a fire, skewer a dead thing, and roast it over the flames.
- Our hairy grunting ancestors figured out how to pound grains between rocks, mix the result with water, and stir all that up in a skin pot set in hot coals until the whole shebang turned into became gruel.
If people all over this globe can manage to cook--out in the open, on the plains and in the forests, in the most poverty-stricken deserts, over open fires, in the wind and rain, with wooden vessels, with nary a roof or a Jenn-Air or a KitchenAid or a Cuisinart in sight--well...let's just say I have full faith that you, my friend (a citizen of the First World, possessed of sound mind, broadband, basic literacy, and an indoor kitchen that comes with the house/apartment, for crying out loud) can learn to cook.
Who Killed Cooking?
I think what pisses me off most about Oh-I-Can't-Cook-titter-titter-titter is the dismissiveness.
Cooking is neither a silly luxury nor a scary burden. It is a basic human life skill. It's one of the basic things that separates us from all the other mammals.
In the 1960s, did people yawn, "Oh, I don't cook." (Those of you who were there--correct me if I'm wrong)? That was the era of Julia Child and the Galloping Gourmet and more church fundraiser cookbooks than you can shake a wooden spoon at (some of which I own). People may not have cooked elaborately, or even well, but they cooked. Routinely.
So, when exactly did cooking die? Or more specifically, when did not knowing how to cook become a backward boast? A strange badge of honor? Who killed cooking? Whendid we abandon our kitchens, and why?
Who convinced us to surrender our birthright--the ability to nourish ourselves--more or less without a fight?
Was it the Fast Food chains? The big food conglomerates? Feminism? The de-funding of education under Ronald Reagan and the death of Home Ec?
I want to know who did this to us. So that I may hunt them down and kill them.
Where to Start
If you didn't grow up cooking, that's not your fault. I'll grant you that. But if you've gotten your own first kitchen-equipped place (apartment, house, condo) and you still don't cook? Buck up, soldier. In this Depression that we aren't willing to call a Depression, it's time to learn.
Not only is cooking your own food healthier and more rewarding, it's also more economical than take-out three times a day.
- Find a buddy who cooks and cook with him/her. That's going to be the most fun way to do it, hands down.
- If you have no cooking buddies, sign up for a class at the local community college.
- As a last resort, used TV and DVDs. Some suggestions at the end of this post.
Start simple. Start with spaghetti. Nearly everybody's first foray into cooking is spaghetti, and there's a good reason for that: It's pretty much neophyte-proof. You can't burn pasta (well, actually, you can, but you'd pretty much have to be trying). You can burn pasta sauce, but you won't if you follow two rules:
- Never raise the heat above Medium
- Use a heavy pot (no chintzy Revereware!)
- Stir and stir and stir again.
- Don't leave the kitchen while the sauce is on the stove.
Get a recipe from a friend, from a cookbook, from epicurious.com or foodtv.com.
Shop for the ingredients.
Follow the recipe.
If something in the recipe confuses you, ask somebody who cooks for clarification.
Like, say, the brigade of blogging OS chefs.
Come on! You can do this! Learn to cook! Save money!
But mostly, stop saying "Oh I can't cook titter titter." Because really? Those of us who can are not impressed. We just feel kinda sorry for you.
Resources for Learning To Cook On Your Own, With Help From Video
Go to the library or Hulu or Youtube or wherever and check these out.
- Alton Brown: Good Eats.
- Julia Child: Anything and Everything
- The Frugal Gourmet: I don't care about the sad end of Jeff Smith's wonderful career--I learned to cook from Jeff, mostly. And I will love him forever for that, may he rest in peace.
- Graham Kerr: Doesn't matter whether the vids are from his health-obsessed zero-fat period or the full-butter-add-cream-one-glass-for-the-pot-one-for-the-cook period, Graham knows how to make you smile while he teaches.
- Suggested by Walter Blevins: Sam Ziem, aka "Sam the Cooking Guy."
And finally--I think I am probably speaking for all the OS Foodies when I say, HELP US TO HELP YOU. There are so many marvelous foodies here. Ask us your questions. Consider us unpaid consultants/troubleshooters.
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Comments
By the way, a terrific person to add to your list of people to teach cooking via books, etc. is Sam Ziem aka "Sam the Cooking Guy". Incredible stuff--simple ingredients, full of flavor, inexpensive, off the wall. Check him out! Soon, I'll transport a couple of my cooking related posts to OS
Rated
Rated
:) Rated
Walter, added Sam to the list. I've never seen him, believe it or not, but I'll keep adding suggestions to the list as they come.
Now, it's my experience that some people really CAN'T cook. My husband, for example, cannot get it through his head that rice must be turned down to a simmer after coming to a boil. Even scouring his own pans after he's burned rice onto them doesn't get the message through his head. He doesn't grok that sometimes you really do have to just stand there a minute and WATCH what you're cooking instead of setting a timer and wandering off. He can't even microwave. He can't accept that different volumes of the same food take different amounts of time, so if he cooked two baked potatoes last time and only has one this time, he will microwave it to a shrivel.
Some sort of mental illness? Faking it in order to get me to take over? Sheer unadulterated laziness? No idea. But he is gifted in other ways, so he gets to not cook.
There are other advantages to cooking - like, if you hate celery, you never have to eat celery in anything again, and if you love garlic, you can garlic-load. Then there's licking the bowls, and having first crack at anything out of the oven, and not having to eat crap processed food. Plus dogs will usually help dispose of the failures or over-abundances.
Or my FIL, who just can't quite remember that MS Word is not a typewriter, and he can SAVE a file and just modify it afterward, rather than printing, closing, and then retyping the same letter sixty five times.
Using canned stock isn't a crime--heck, I do it all the time. I make stock when I feel like it, and it's better (certainly cheaper) but canned/boxed is fine.
When I was dating (ugh) I knew a guy who owned ONE fork, ONE plate, ONE cup, ONE spoon, and ONE 2-quart pot (with which to heat up cans of sweetened condensed milk for an hour, to turn it into caramel). He ate fast food three times a day, every day. And had been doing so 12 of his 33 years. THAT was sad...
He started with microwave stuff, and at 15, is now able to do eggs (to order, and with added ingredients), pasta, and anything with fairly easy directions. It has often been a relief to come home and have HIM make dinner for us. My Grandma always said, "if you can read, you can cook!"
When I grew up some people were still sewing dresses as a home skill. Today cooking seems just as quaint. A combo of things probably knocked it off the skill set chart, and those of us able to whip up a good meal without a cookbook are unusual today.
Btw, Bumfarkistan is best in spring, before the jungle gets too hot. I trekked through last year, after the poles and before scaling Mt. Everest without oxygen or sherpas.
But I think cooking is like growing plants. Everyone can grow plants, but some people have a knack. Their plants sprout and go and go. Mine usually live but are spindly no matter what I do, no matter how many ways I correctly tend them.
So, for expertise, some can go the distance. Some can't. The culinarily skilled, I have great admiration for you. But I'm not. It's not a matter of pride. I'm embarrassed mainly. But there it is. I can sing well. I can write fairly well. I can teach fantastically. But cooking ... it has to be simple or I screw it up.
If you have cable or satellite TV, check out Emeril Green on the Planet Green network.
On each episode he helps a cooking-challenged person overcome their fears and offers some great cooking tips along the way.
Check out some of his recipes
here.
According to the comments here, I suppose it's a good thing that I don't have children to starve, because its obvious social services would have whisked them away post-haste. Or perhaps I've been brainwashed, and have become an automaton who has handed over my free-will, and am being subjugated by The Man. I'm sure it's fun to cook. People look like their having a blast doing it. I'd just rather have fun doing something else. I am healthy, eat nutritious foods that I don't prepare, and manage to stay alive. Somehow, I still entertain, clean my house, do my laundry, wash my car and pay my bills, all without cooking. I had an E-Z Bake Oven. I enjoyed my skateboard a lot more. Pleases don't feel sorry for me. I live a full life, despite the fact that I use my oven to store my winter wear. I don't feel inferior, I don't feel superior; this is how I live MY life.
But Verbal, as per your tag, I will hold you to your promise to ask you anything! I just have to think of exactly what!
Sometimes, someone will even call lil' ol' me, for one of my recipes. Imagine that!
If someone really wants to cook and really can't, perhaps PIXAR can come up with a virtual Remy (Ratatouille) to tuck under his/her chef's hat.
--rated--
rated.
I can make: Spaghetti, Thai peanut chicken with rice, any salad, and I can reheat and rehydrate with the best of them. I have an entire cabinet of cookbooks, but they intimidate the crap out of me and never ever taste anywhere near as good as my dad's cooking.
There needs to be a foodie 101 class for people like me.
I mean, how hard can it really be to follow the directions on the back of the instant-oatmeal packets, once you figure out that the milk goes in the bowl last? There are even pictures of how it's supposed to look on the box! Duh.
My wife was a professional cook in San Francisco when I met her. I blundered into that relationship with the perfect tools to learn a million things about cooking from an expert: I knew how to pay attention, and I knew how to clean up.
I'm not anywhere near where I want to be, but I'm light-years ahead of where I was, and that makes me happy. Plus I love feeding family and friends. I do occasionally improvise now, too - but am usually more comfortable starting with a recipe and adjusting from there.
I'm also lucky enough to have a number of friends who love to cook - we have some pretty fantastic dinner parties!
My boys also cook. They know that most of the time that they can cook it better than they can buy it. Plus, duh, it costs less.
denese
I really think that it is a responsibility of parents to teach their children to cook (as well as other things to take care of themselves) as a basic life skill. We are at the place now with the parents not knowing how to cook either. It really doesn't take long for skills to die out of populations.
Of course, people can learn to cook from books, TV and DVDs, but there is really nothing like watching someone in person and being guided hands-on. Cooking is very tactile.
I've been surprised, even shocked, to watch people on cooking competitions, like Top Chef, who have specialized skills but lack any semblance of overall knowledge. I always thought knowing how to cook meant knowing how to prepare all food, including baking.
Cooking show on TV are mixed as to whether they encourage or further degrade cooking abilities. There is some really horrible slop being prepared on some shows and there are others that are entirely too upscale to draw in those who would need basic skills and help with menu planning.
As to why and who is responsible for this sad state of affairs, I think it is all the "usual suspects" you listed and probably a few more things. We've had some pretty momentous shifts in our culture and losing the ability to cook is just one piece of fallout.
Favorite cookbook: The Ark Cookbook (Jimella Llucas and Nancy Main).
Currently favorite recipe from Cooking Lite (and contributor Diana Rios) [Wow!]:
"I developed this stew using Mexican ingredients I grew up with. I often use cod because my husband loves it. He asked me to create a good recipe for fish stew with some spice." --Diana Rios, Lytle, TX
Yield
4 servings
Ingredients
* 1 tablespoon olive oil
* 2 cups chopped onion
* 1 cup (1/4-inch-thick) slices carrot
* 1 cup (1/4-inch-thick) slices celery
* 3 garlic cloves, minced
* 1 jalapeño pepper, sliced
* 4 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
* 2 cups cubed peeled Yukon gold or red potato
* 1 cup dry white wine
* 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
* 1 (15-ounce) can crushed tomatoes, undrained
* 1 pound halibut, cut into bite-size pieces
* 1/2 pound peeled and deveined large shrimp
* Lime wedges
* Cilantro sprigs (optional)
Preparation
Heat oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add onion, carrot, celery, garlic, and jalapeño to pan; sauté 5 minutes or until tender. Stir in broth, potato, wine, cilantro, and tomatoes; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes or until potato is tender. Add fish and shrimp; cook an additional 5 minutes or until fish and shrimp are done. Ladle 2 1/2 cups stew into each of 4 bowls; serve with lime wedges. Garnish with cilantro sprigs, if desired.
I'm learning to bake cakes from a special friend.
Great post.
I agree with you about the attitude toward cooking. When people find out that I know the difference between braising and boiling, they look at me like I have mystical powers.
I've been off, er, working and won't be back for a couple of hours to reply but golly gee, I'm glad to see all this feedback. I've read them all and am nodding and smiling and knitting my brow, alternately!
The food network is a good place to learn about cooking. Although I find herannoying, Rachel Ray's 30 minute meal ideass are actually pretty helpful. If you're truly a novice but willing to learn, begin slowly and build up to Julia Child.
I think also the silly, negative, down-putting idea that "cooking is women's work"--except in the cases of highly paid male restaurant chefs--must take a share of blame. Cooking should not be thought of as the exclusive province of either gender, or as drudgery. It should be thought of as a useful skill that will help anyone. It's also a good thing to know how to make a good dinner out of inexpensive ingredients.
If there's a silver lining to the cloud we're under, perhaps it will be a home cooking/nutrition renaissance. When people have to figure out how to feed their families well and cheaply, they'll stop buying junk, and everyone's health will improve. rated with a punch from my cooking spoon.
some of us do okay with one fully functional upper appendage and a semi functional one... so it doesn t even require that.
I get the feeling that women who get away with that, are better at other things. Titter titter.
You have a sharp tongue and mind, young lady.
It used to be pretty common for men to claim this, even in my (baby boom) generation. I have known lots of women who married men who "can't cook". I refused even to date guys who said that. Neither my partner nor I are great cooks but we both cook, separately and together. I can't imagine being stuck with doing it all the time.
Gotta go. The Bumfarkistani take-out down the street (Zdefghtes House of Ghjietsz) closes at 9:00!
I didn't know about a Foodie Tuesday post.
Social anxiety.
denese
I think that cooking is a basic life skill. If you can't do anything fancy, you can put something simple together and not burn it. It is sad, but I believe that many parents don't teach their kids. With both of them working, it is too easy to run through a drive-through (and they especially don't teach boys, but it is pretty bad for girls, now, too). I have to admit, I had to ask people in my family to teach me what little I do know. No one offered, and my mom hated cooking. Several friends of mine know even less than I. I passed down what I could to my brother, and he is very good on some things, decent on most.
As for the next step, having the desire to learn, well, why must I have the desire to learn, when I'd much rather have the desire to eat food prepared by someone that already knows what they're doing, and I can trade that skill (via money) for a skill that I do enjoy doing, such as my job (to get that money)? Why can't we all have different, complementary skills and share the fruits of our labor?
I have a whole different perspective on the tittering (which I'm guessing is women who don't want to be pushed into gender assumptions about cooking, but also want to be non-confrontational with you on the whole issue). Maybe these people have just had other, higher priorities, and they just haven't gotten around to learning to cook YET. Maybe the tittering is just their way of saying "Listen, if tell me again to take off my shoes and get in the kitchen I'm going to clock you." :-)
Plus, PS, how many recipes do you know of for spaghetti? Seriously, where do you find a cookbook that tells you to use a box of dry spaghetti, how to measure out enough of the stuff for however many people are going to be eating (and how to do that when you don't have a food scale)? How many recipes call for one box of pasta, one jar of sauce? Or tell you when to start the sauce compared to the pasta, so that it's not sitting there just WAITING to burn while the water for the pasta still isn't boiling. Then there's the whole "10 hotdogs in a package but only 8 buns" issue. A 1-pound box of spaghetti is eight 2-oz servings. Many jars of pasta sauce are 24 ounces, or 6 servings. It's enough to drive a person mad, if you don't have all these little bits of trivia already stashed away in your brain for how to do that.
All of this is to say that my answer, instead of boiling blood, would be "all it takes is practice, the willingness to make a mess sometimes, and the willingness to eat something that may not be pretty the first 3, 4, 5 times you attempt it." That's pretty much how I learned.
Food is a wondrous thing and I've long believed that the first step to becoming a good cook is to learn how good food should taste. If you were blessed with culinarily rich family life as a child you have a head start. Even better if travel was part of your childhood and dining out at restaurants where good food was served.
With so many wonderful cooking shows on television (Rachel Ray not included) and the internet there is a wealth of knowledge at our fingertips. I became a chef because I was a very fussy eater, and I knew what I liked. I became more and more adventurous with my eating, but I was a kid who was eating raw oysters about the time I learned to walk, and when asked what my favorite meal was at the age of five I eagerly replied, "suki-yaki of course."
I have met people who simply have no affinity for cooking, a lack of refinement in their taste buds, and a proclivity for using pre-made shortcuts of questionable ingredients. They will enjoy a steak dinner but could they discern the difference between a prime piece of Wagyu and a supermarket select sirloin? Probably not except that one "is tougher." We all have our strengths and weaknesses, I cannot draw to save my life, though I wish I had this talent. I can manage to draw a parasite as I peer at it under a microscope so that it resembles what I am looking at, if I concentrate very hard. So too can the non talented cook acquire some basic skills and produce an edible meal.
I write this just after my return from my local wondermarket, an emporium of delights from the garden, the sea, and farmyard. Tonight a fresh mozzarella caprese salad, loaf of freshly baked sourdough, some local musssels sauteed in garlic, white wine, olive oil, a knob of fresh churned butter and fragrant California olive oil, sprinkled with fresh italian flat leaf parsley. It will take approximately ten minutes to prepare and less than that to cook.
Doesn't that sound better than Dominos or something frozen in the microwave? Better go, I've gotten very hungry after writing it down!
An aside:
more church fundraiser cookbooks than you can shake a wooden spoon at
amy_b's vintage cookbook scans are not to be missed.
"Well, do you EAT?"
I have LIVED with people who don't cook, and I STILL don't know how they manage it.
Fuck that shit. Women who are good in the kitchen are also good in the bedroom.
Tonight it was polenta with spinach, garlic and a medley of mushrooms. Oh, and sauteed greenbeans. Yummmmmmmmm.
My wife is a VERY overworked university professor. I mostly edit from the confines of the home (How can such a horrible writer be an editor, You might ask, but just as I was a successful language teacher but an abysmal language learner, such oddities do occur), AND I do ALL the cooking.
May I humbly add my main mentor, Chef John:
http://foodwishes.blogspot.com/
Orangette is funnier, but John's recipes and videos invariably turn out much better:
http://orangette.blogspot.com/2008/08/also-picnics.html
As for ronnie, wasn't he the brainless dolt who had catsup recategorized as a food???
An added bonus could be, as it has been in my case, that your social life improves. Those who know me expect that I'll show up at their dinner party with a tasty appetizer, like Cajun Crab dip with jicama chips. Or that I'll grace their barbecue with a grilled lettuce salad.
It's got more than one lovely lady into the sack, as well. (Not that I'd ever take advantage.)
Love this post!!! I am so glad that I CAN COOK. Guess what? Cooking is so important, that not knowing how in the future...you may starve. Some kids are now because they don't know that cooking is cheaper than fast food. And they are malnourished because they eat only packaged processed foods that have been laced with chemicals to excite our tastebuds involuntarily without providing actual nourishment...see "all Coke, Pepsi, and other Soda products." It is why we are obese. Our bodies are begging for real nutrition, and there is so little in our food we keep eating and eating and eating to glean the few nutrients still available after the processing. We may not consciously know it, but our bodies know it. Why do you think poor people are fatter? Fake food. '
The solution: Learn to cook. Buy Fresh/Buy Local. Buy organic. Learn to cook. It's cool.
When people tell me they can't cook, I ask, "Why not? Don't you have a sense of taste?"
It's just apathy that prevents them.
I've had burners that were either very, very hot or cold, with no in between, despite what it said on the dial.
I made a dinner for some friends once, shortly out of college. They were amazed when I fried up some hamburger, added it to a jar of spaghetti sauce and boiled spaghetti. They'd never been taught to cook and they didn't know where to start. My example, hardly gourmet cooking showed them that 1) cooking wasn't that hard and 2) it would improve their diet and 3) cut their food bill.
I was flabbergast that they had reached adulthood without any kitchen experience, but they had.
My home Ec classes taught me how to make brownies, not how to make dinner. Making brownies is not a necessary life skill. But, unlike cooking dinner, most of the ingredients were available from the Gov't surplus food program.
and also cartouche -- "We can't cook" is sometimes an excuse for people who never reciprocate our dinner invitation. Apparently they can't dial out for a pizza, either.
I put things in a pan with no oil, thinking that a "non-stick" pans means what it says; and put oil in a pan when the item needs nothing but it's own juices, making whatever it is turn out soggy and... oily.
I've found two recipes that I thought would together make a great meal and then realize at 6:30 they both need to be in the oven RIGHT NOW; one at 350 degrees for a half hour and one at 450 degrees for 1o minutes. That's when I stand at the oven, staring as if a flying monkey just knocked on my window.
I can't carry on a conversation while I cook - to me the mark of a real "cook" - having to obsessively check and recheck the recipe as I go, while my guest amuses his or herself watching TV in the other room, realizing I'm not one of those who can chatter with glass of wine in hand, stirring with the other as I pull together our meal.
Anyway - I'm working hard to get better, and I'll stop whining about it. I really, really want to become a better cook, and I know the only way for this to happen is to make all my mistakes and learn from them.
Thanks for the book recommendations. You're absolutely right about all this.
Sometimes I think you take the words right out of my mouth---redress them into a more articulate outfit---and post them for me, but never more so than with this post. The difference here is that I would not have been nearly as polite.
Every and any one can learn to cook a few meals.
I know many women who say they don't have time---so it is always "take-out" food or some frozen nonsense for dinner. PLEEEASE!
How hard is it to stop at the market instead of the drive through and pick up a roasted chicken, a can of black beans, a bag of shredded cheese and some type of fresh salsa?? and make quesadeas?
At least that's a *start* towards cooking.
And while at the market, pick up some boneless skinless chicken breasts or pork chops, stick them in a quick marinade, and throw them on the grill the next night.
Maple syrup, soy sauce, red pepper flakes=a good, quick marinade.
Take some grape seed oil, saute some garlic, some chopped scallions, and chopped asparagus. Use this to toss some pasta. Add a tablespoon or two of soy, juice of a lime and maybe a scant drop of maple syrup.
I can make that meal in less than 20 minutes and I can vary it endlessly if necessary.
I should have started this comment by saying---don't get me started on this subject.
Mumbletypeg: Treat yourself to a good set of pots and pans. It'll be a revelation, I promise. Costco has some wonderful sets for dirt cheap, all things considered. :-)
Owl: I love your grandmother. And your son, who's cooking custom eggs!
Lea: Thanks for the travel tips re: Bumfarkistan!
Flamingo: See, it's funny--mashed potatoes ARE relatively difficult to do right. That is, smooth/not lumpy/not pasty. Glad they called for your advice! And I concur with your assessment of Rachel Ray.
Donnesflea: Yes, BOTH genders need to know how to cook! Bring back "Home Ec" and make it mandatory (during that otherwise wasted period that's laughably called "Physical Education" but really is just an excuse for the jocks not to have to learn anything and to pick on the nerds.)
Odette, nothing wrong with simple. In fact, simple's the way to eat. Ask Michael Pollan. "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." Steam away!
Joblessville, I'm happy it works for you.
WalkAway, let us know where/when that B&B opens.
MTN: Bad wolf. Down, wolf. :-)
JK, I'm not saying I would mind if Mr. Remedy were to commandeer the kitchen from time to time, but we've got this tacit agreement; food is mine, cleanup is his.
Dorinda, I do not believe you. :-P
Mothership, you do just FINE. And I'd love a virtual Remy. Squeeee! Rodent!
Lisa S-W--YES, that.
Julie, you're doing well if you can do Thai peanut chicken!!! Sounds to me like you're ready for one of those cooking classes @ the comm. college.
Ash--as long as Spousal Unit has it covered, it's all good. You can come clean my bathroom and I'll cook for you.
IndieGirl--yeah, the lack of parental cooking/modeling really did screw up a whole generation, didn't it? Sad. Congrats on pushing forward in to your 20s, though.
Dan O'--way to snag a chef!
George, the big gang of friends who love to cook (and eat) is crucial, I think. One of our friends is starting to cook--really for the first time--and I'm so proud of him. He's perfecting his chicken soup. It was delightful to be able to send him home with some CSA ingredients last weekend.
denese, I'll bet you're a great house chef.
SuznMaree--I agree. Losing the ability to cook is really a cultural crime.
Robin--with one sentence, you just slammed me into a world of bittersweet memories--cooking with a "special friend" is the best kind of cooking. [sigh]
Deborah: Yes, that kind of arrogant "I can't cook" is the thing that makes me batty. Exactly that. And laundry? You're raisin' that boy right.
Buffy, I did the shop thing in high school too! It was part of Basic Agriculture. Welding, wood shop, etc. All useful skills to have.
LaRae--welcome and LAUGH about the "mystical powers" thing. It's so true.
Sheepy--Mr. Remedy brews the beer. I cook the food. We find it an equitable division of labor.
Shiral--we can only hope that people don't just roll over and expose their soft, vulnerable underbelly to the Agribiz predators during this Depression. Learned helplessness is real.
Brian B: Hey, thanks for the refinement of the premise! :-D
Penrose: Liver is SUPPOSED to look like roadkill until you cook it. Just a fact of life. Throw it in a greased pan on Medium with some onions and enjoy!
Duaneart: "Are you telling me that if you could get away with "Oh I can't cook titter titter," followed by a trip to your favorite restaurant, you wouldn't do it? As often as you could?" I am indeed telling you that very thing. I go out to eat maybe two, three times a year. Have reached the conclusion that I can make a better dinner, for a lot less money, 95% of the time. When I DO go out, it has to be at a place where they make things that are nigh-on impossible for the home cook to make. Haute cuisine, really good sushi, etc. No, I really don't understand the appeal of flushing good money down the toilet. I can feed 8 on what one entree costs in most restaurants.
Silkstone: "It's like saying 'I can't wipe my ass.' HA! EXACTLY.
Hatchetface, order me some Ghjietsz, wouldja?
Delia, I think I kinda like being called Ver-Ver. :-D
Catnmus, no, really, this is in earnest. Nobody has ever died for lack of playing guitar. See "wiping one's ass..." [Seriously, where do you find a cookbook that tells you to use a box of dry spaghetti, how to measure out enough of the stuff for however many people are going to be eating (and how to do that when you don't have a food scale)? ] The Betty Crocker Cookbook, The Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook,, or one of those nifty two-dollar pasta-measuring contraptions (with circles through which you place pasta) all take care of portions. But then, there's also the joy of leftovers...
Ablonde--having now had wagyu several times, I can honestly say I don't really like it. Too fatty. The tenderness doesn't outweigh the greasiness, at least on my palate. But DAMN your dinner sounds delicious!
Rob, peasant fare is all we need. We're peasants,after all. Thanks for the reminder about the vintage scans!
Hobo--ask that next time and report back, OK?
LSW hits it out of the park @ duaneart!
PublicFlogger, you're welcome. [smile]
Screamin' mama--ooooh, fresh pasta is just the BEST, isn't it? PretendFarmer makes a KILLER lasagne from fresh pasta and her goats' milk cheese. Mmmmmm. Drooooooool.
Indeed, Markinjapan, Ronald Reagan had ketchup classified as a vegetable. Everything wrong with America right now, I firmly believe, can be traced back to that evil bastard.
cartouche, one day. You and me. A kitchen. Champagne. Ingredients. DECADENCE.
I'll add "The New Basics" in a few, voicegal!
Chicago Guy: No. Laundry and I have an understanding. It sits on the floor, and I ignore it.
Trig: Love.
Wayne, Can I have some of that crab dip?
Teddy, the fact that you're learning all over again? Says good things about your recovery. Be well.
C Berg: I am utterly infuriated that the Food Stamp program does not include MANDATORY cooking classes that teach recipients how to stretch those dollars as far as possible. It literally breaks my heart seeing the benefits card paying for boxed mac-n-cheese or frozen dinners or Doritos. Gah. Don't get me started.
Annimal: The smell is key, isn't it? :-D
Somyr, with that chef honey of yours, you can get away with cooking less, but I'm glad to hear you're jumping in and going!
Malusinka--oven thermometers are cheap; I'm just sayin'. Yes, rentals frequently have wonky stoves/ovens, but landlords should fix egregiously bad (i.e., unusable) ones. As to your friends' flabbergastery over a basic bottled spaghetti: Yeah, my college friends were all agog at me, too, when I would haul out a hot pot, and add SAUSAGE to the Ragu. :-O
JTress, I love your mother-in-law!
inch--that may explain the dynamic at work, but I hear it too often in social circles, too, where no judgment would be forthcoming.
dickens--I laughed at your comment. You should post it as a "counterpoint" to this post. But you go, girl. Practice, practice, practice, and ask away. Anything. There are no stupid questions.
Dan O--for vegetarian cooking I turn to Mollie Katzen, every time. I can't ignore Bible stuff. Impossible.
bobbot, I completely agree.
m. a.h., glad to see you back, girlfriend! And now you've made me very, very hungry.
i was writing a cookbook called Cooking for the Romantic Bachelor – the way to her heart is not through her ribcage. Simple recipes and cooking methods to impress the girl.
i agree with you whole heartedly! i think the claim of a lack of cooking ability is a elitist copout akin to claiming that you don’t drive (your chauffeur drives you).
There are instructions on almost every kind of food product. i even saw a whole uncooked chicken with an instruction list on the wrapper instructing what to cram up its backside. The directions for making most available products have been written so that an eight year old can perform the tasks (i make my kids read the instructions for baking cookies and tell me what comes next before i let them do it). And furthermore, the processed foods are all about re-heating and rehydrating, not really ‘cooking’. There is no real excuse for the willful ignorance.
And i love Alton Brown. i would stalk him and lurk in his grocery store if i lived in Atlanta. Good Eats is not a cooking show. It is more of a “what food is and how you can cook it – with models and puppets” show.
i bought my fridge because he said it was (get ready for the pun) cool.
If you like oriental foods, my mother swears by/at Martin Yan. He wrote “Yan Can Cook” and the “Joy of Woking”.
PS – love your stuff. I lurk here too.
This past weekend I asked an aunt to come teach me to make pie (she had offered). She came, she brought recipes, I tried. She walked me through everything. As I'm rolling out pie crust (more difficult than she described), she says "Hmmm. It's not acting right," and adds shortening. Then picks up a walnut sized piece of dough and rolls it in her hands. "Nope," she says. She adds water. "There, that's better. It just didn't feel right."
I don't know what pie crust is supposed to "act" or "feel" like! I say "I can't cook" because it isn't as hard as watching the food I prepare go untouched.
I'm talkin' 'bout straight-up cooking.
Baking is a lot more rigid--not a lot of improv allowed, which is why I find it dull and rarely do it. :-)
BTW, I showed your post to my sister who yelled "YES!" very loudly and now bows at your virtual feet. She has a self-published book of marinades and also wrote an article on how to use whatever you have in your kitchen to make a meal.
What's wrong with that? Like odetteroulette, I don't have a knack for cooking either. I'll do it when necessary but it needs to stay simple or it's a disaster. Obviously if I were to devote lots and lots of time to it I would get better, but why should I do that if it doesn't interest me?
Luckily I live in a world where prepared food is readily and cheaply available, so I am free to devote myself to other activities for which I may actually have some modicum of aptitude.
I don't see why this is being interpreted as a boast of any kind, or an indication of excessive self-satisfaction. It's just a statement. No need to read into things.
The best food on earth is the food made at home.
For me, preparing food is a sensory, creative delight. I understand some people don't share this feeling but since eating is central to being and such a wonderfully quotidian pleasure, I really do feel sorry for them.