Cooking a lost art?

[Medusa]

I love to cook but I cook simple meals. I refuse to cook with or eat canned vegetables except tomatoes. There's something about chopping onions and garlic and filling the kitchen w/that aroma that gets me excited. When I was working long hours, I'd cook meals for the week ahead and the house would smell like a restaurant. I've been alone for so many years but I'm just now learning how to cook in smaller portions. Even if I buy a pot roast I cut it in half and get two meals out of it. My friends like coming to my house b/c they know that I'll always have soup or stew or sauce of some kind that I can reheat, toss a salad and add some crusty bread and they've got a good home cooked meal. I do on occasion succumb to eating a frozen pizza or some other frozen food but that's usually on a really busy day when I don't have too much time and the fridge and cupboards are low.

[happylabs]

Hey Nicole that is awesome! Keep on cooking and don't listen to your friends. I love to cook as well. As a little girl I sat on the kitchen counter and watched my mom cook everything until I was old enough to cook. I still love to cook but my kids are grown and I am single again so I don't cook much during the week. On the weekends I try to have friends or family over.

You should try the chocolate cake recipe on the Hershey's cocoa can. BEST chocolate cake ever. So moist. This is the cake I make for almost every occasion and it is so easy.

I hope your fiance appreciates you. You know what they say...the quickest way to a man's heart is through his stomach.

[anna_66]

Your family is very lucky!

I really do like to cook and bake but I never have time, and when I do I don't feel like it because I'm so tired.
So unfortunately we end up doing quick food or take out.

[wombat2u2004]

How lucky you all are !!!! In England, all they eat is SPAM.
My wife Karen hates cooking, always has.
So I do a lot of it now.

[Miss Z]

I find cooking to be a stress reliever. I love to experiment and I love watching people enjoy my food.

I agree with the above - cooking is a great way to unwind, when it goes right, that is. I'm a bit of a perfectionist with food and like putting effort into giving a dish some aesthetics as well as good flavours, so if it ends up collapsing even just in the slightest, I feel miffed. If I'm going to cook, then I do the whole lot from scratch - no cheating by buying ready made sauces or doughs. Filo pastry.... agony!

I've been cooking 'seriously' for about a year now, and started with a little student vegetarian cookbook in preparation for my uni days. I now have several giant hardback recipe books that are full of scribbles from where I've changed the amounts of ingredients and added new ideas.

In England, all they eat is SPAM.

Heh, but 'I'm a (supposed) Celebrity.... Get me out of Here!' taught me that the main diet of an Australian is witchetty grubs and kangaroo testicles.

[Lady's Human]

Cooking a lost art? Judging from a couple PT threads, I'd say the jury's still out. On one hand, we can't seem to be able to boil eggs, but our cooking and recipe threads tend to run for pages and pages.

[RICHARD]

On one hand, we can't seem to be able to boil eggs, but our cooking and recipe threads tend to run for pages and pages.

I haven't killed my self yet.

------------

The easiest thing to do is plan a little and eat for a few days on one meal.

Ready?

Sunday Dinner?

Roast some chicken breasts with veggies.

Make gravy from the drippings, and serve with some of the veggies.

Rip apart the rest of the chicken and put it into the fridge with the veggies.

-------------

Monday lunch?

Shredded chicken, salad from the package sexed up with some tomatoes and onions, dressing?

Monday dinner?

Open a can of beans, grab a few tortillas, cheese and a can of salsa.

Heat up some of the chicken with some bell peppers?

Chicken fajitas!

--------------------

Tuesday lunch?

Chicken salad, chop up some veggies the night before, toss with mayo and toast some bread.


By the time Tuesday dinner come you are tired of chicken and you can eat the FISH you cooked with the chicken on Sunday.


-----------

LH,

Remember the people that BAKE and make their own bread...The artisians that take bread recipes and go nuts with them.

And?

A little tree bark (cinnamon) goes along way.

[ChrisH]

I cook the majority of my meals from scratch, stir-frys, pasta dishes, curry, chilli, casseroles, chicken/beef/pork with mashed/roast potatoes & veg. I live alone and with things like soups, casserole, curry & chilli dishes I deliberately make too much and freeze the excess so I've usually a meal to hand if I don't feel like cooking.

I must admit though that I'm not a big fan of fish and when I do buy any it is already frozen and covered in breadcrumbs. The exception being fresh salmon because it can be bought in small quantities and is nice for a treat.

The other things I buy frozen are pizzas and beefburgers. I don't eat them very often and to me it's not worth the trouble to make from scratch.

I don't make my own spaghetti, or other pasta, either again too much trouble. The dried is so much easier.

And I don't bake, that is something I just cannot master. I don't eat pies or cake often, or desserts if it comes to it, so it hardly matters.

[pomtzu]

For years and years and years, when I was still married and the kids were growing up, I cooked a big meal from scratch EVERYDAY, with the exception of Saturday when I took a break. This was after coming home from working a full time job Monday-Friday. Takeout was never an option, nor were boxed or frozen meals. I was brought up in a home where my mother did the same, altho she didn't work, and I never questioned doing it any differently.

Now I've earned a rest - one big meal cooked on Sunday, and of course holidays too. Residing in a home with son, DIL and grandson, no one ever agrees on what they would like, or even when they will be home to eat it, so I usually fix myself a decent lunch and forgo much of anything to eat at night, other than a light snack.

And right now the house is filled with the smell of a pineapple casserole that I just took out of the oven - made from scratch of course!

[sirrahbed]

Good for you doing all that home cooking Nicole!! While I don't cook every day like I used to, there are still fewer pleasures as satisfying as filling the house with the smell of a good meal and watching people eat what I cook No packaged noodle will ever replace rolled out dumplings and no can of soup can replace a pot of simmered soup on the stove!! I do have many convenience foods that I use though - my newest favorite being packaged frozen potatoes (Ore Ida I think...) that I nuke in the microwave for mashed potatoes.

[Cataholic]

I love to cook.

It depends if I do it 'from scratch' or not. Many things are just as tasty, and such significant time savers that, really, it just isn't worth the trade off. I like the idea of embellishing an item. For instance, I never make my own pizza crust- too much work. And, I know of several that are quite tasty either fresh or frozen. But, I then embellish it with my fave toppings, my own sauce, etc.

Canned soups make such a great base/starter, as long as it isn't overly sodium ladened. I HAVE made stock many times, frankly, the boxed veggie stock is WAY better than anything I make, and it is easier.


I leave the house around 815 am, and get home usually around 6 p. No way am I devoting the next hour plus to making something from scratch. I like to eat...but, I like to live, too. I do like to make a big mess of pesto, hummus, sauce, pepperanata, etc.,.

[Freedom]

I LOVE SPAM! Make it about once a week!