Who's cookin' tonight?

[walkin jack]

Rusty's thread, Boys Night, and some of the comments about cooking awakened an old memory. I thought some of you might be interested in how I came to be such a great cook.

Actually I do love to cook. Nuttin' fancy but I don't get no complaints. Once I discovered I had the knack for it I began to love cooking. There are two different styles of cooking. You have your chefs and you have your cooks. A chef is a more structured or regimented type cook. I think of myself as a cook. I don't measure anything and I use my cooking instinct to try new things and change some things now and then for variety. It's fun and I really enjoy it inside or out on the patio.

It all started like this:
I was between wives. I was raising my 5 year old daughter. Her mother was not in the picture. I was a 9 to 5'er In those days (1970). I'd get off work and pick Robyn up at the day care and we'd go home and sit in front of the tv watching Star Trek as we ate dinner.

One day we were dong this and I noticed she was just pushing her food around with her fork and looking disgusted. I asked her if she was alright and she turned her face up to me and looked at me with her big sad eyes, "Daddy", do we have to have tv dinners EVERY night?!?"

Busted!

A lot of stuff when through my mind in the next second"
.What have I been doing.
.I'm not being a good father!
.I gotta learn how to cook.
.I'll give Mom a call. (She was a great cook)

Mom: Hello

Me: Hi Mom, listen, can you show me a few moves in the kitchen? I'm startin' to get some complaints.

Mom: (chukle) Sure Honey, what do you want to know?

Me: Everything. Lets start off slow. Maybe boiling water?

Mom: (more chuckling) Fine. Y'all come over for the week end and I'll send you home with some recipes and some verbal tips. And any time you can call me with questions."

Well that all went pretty well. Spent the next year doing the trial and error thing and well, now I'm a pretty accomplished cook.

That all turned out for good too because even though Miss Pam is a very good cook it ain't exactly her favorite thing to do. So we both get it the way we like and we always have good meals and my stock stays way up there.

 

[delcrossv]

Learned to cook as a kid as my mom wouldn't make/buy things I liked as much as I would have liked. E.g. cake and pastry. Moved on to breakfasts, pies , cooking meat and making gravies and sauces.

These days, the wife is the baker and I'm still on meat and sauce duty. The kids all pick it up as they help in the kitchen. 2nd oldest son makes a kick-a** flourless chocolate cake.

 

[Doug627]

I'll bet it made a world of difference to your daughter. She saw how much you cared. God Bless you for that. My guess is He already did.

 

[sureshotbob]

Not Me !!!! I'm taking a break tonight.
I'm taking my wife and oldest granddaughter out for Chinese tonight. I do most of the cooking as my wife still works . When she get's home dinner is ready.
I learned to cook from my Mom at about 15 years old or so. It started out by her prepping the meal for me before she went to work. But I learned pretty quickly I'm able to cook prime rib to clam's with linguine in white sauce plus many other things.

 

[BearBio]

I learned the very basics (bake a cake, cook a steak/stew/pork chops) from my grandmother. Her and my grandfather were cooks in a lumber camp.

In grad school, I would work on my thesis for a couple of hours each morning, take a nap (I would be out all night collecting data) then watch TV==the Food Channel (esp. Emeril) was about all that was on. We had a bull elk, a big Wyoming mulie and a large wild boar in the freezer along with some albacore, quail & pheasant. My wife still jokes about the weight we gained as "starving students". Now I'm retired and do 90% of the cooking. This next week I'll be canning salsa verde from my own tomatillos, blackberry jam from my own vines, sourdough bread, and making an apple pie (actually a couple) for the freezer. Tonight is going to be home-made meatballs in sandwiches (grow my own basil. oregano, and garlic), Brussel sprouts with bacon, and a green salad with bleu cheese and a home-made raspberry vinaigrette.

 

[italiansport]

Ever since I retired I've done more and more cooking. I enjoy it and IMO you can get much better value for your money cooking at home than eating in restaurants. The Internet has also made it much simpler to shop around for a recipe you'd like to try with a particular dish.
Here's one of my own to try for breakfast. Hard boil a couple of eggs, chop them up and mix in a half dozen or so pittled and cut up canned black olives. Happy eating!!
Jim

 

[dirty & hairy]

I work hard, it gets stressful at times. What I do to unwind is cook. The best part is I get to eat what I want made just how I like it. I'll put on the headphones, maybe open a beer or two and listen to talk radio podcasts or music. My wife might have her stupid television shows on and I don't care, can't hear it (or her). After dinner she cleans up. Win win.

Sometimes its take & bake pizza. That counts, right?

 

[Rustyt1953]

We both love to cook. Ruthie is cooking tonight. Garlic and herb roasted pork tenderloin with mashed potatoes, peas and glazed carrots.

Before Ruthie's mom remarried, she worked long hours so Ruthie had to cook, care for and help raise her little brother and her older handicapped sister. She missed a lot of her childhood. Out of it, she became a brilliant cook and the kids and I are happy recipients.

My mom and dad, as children, went through years of food shortages and their families learned to make meals out of what was available and things that would never make it to Gourmet Magazine. Because of that, I inherited their inquisitive, adventurous pallet. They encouraged me to not let my eyes dissuade me from trying something new and I have discovered a world of tastiness because of it.

I would hate to go through life ordering from a one page menu.

 

[pawngal]

I learned to bake from my Mother, over the years from the time I was 9 I got many blue ribbons at our big county fair for cakes, cookies, and breads.
She also taught be how to can and freeze anything and everything.
But Mom's everyday cooking was so-so as I discovered as an adult. She cooked most everything to death, especially meat and vegetables.

Learned a lot about cooking, grilling, and smoking meat from my 1st set of inlaws.

My a-ha! time came about 25 years ago, a local high end restaurant had a great chef and he held several classes, learned about cooking all types of fish & seafood, various sauces, and delicious veggies. And I learned to experiment, mostly all turned out good.

When I eat out I pay close attention to what I like and why and many times can repeat it at home. I do love to cook!

 

[Rudi]

Tonight, chilly and corn bread.

 

[Golddollar]

Tonight, chilly and corn bread.

I'll be right over!

My avatar is me at a chili cookoff. I attached my computer wallpaper to give a better idea of my preparation at a cookoff. Most of the preparation and all of the cooking is done on site, and it was a lot of fun putting on a show for the crowd and meeting everybody when I was handing out samples. The cookoffs were usually on Saturdays and my picture ended up in a number of Sunday papers. I got double duty out of the costume because that was my SASS costume also.

That's a number 14 Griswold skillet and part of the show was browning up the meat, onions and peppers. I think over the years I could have sold a few Griswold skillets at the cookoffs, as used.

 

[JohnRippert]

I prefer the grill or crockpot when cooking but I am not too bad. It all started when I got tired of paying for fast food and TV dinners. First thing I "perfected" was a good pasta sauce recipe. Then I started learning a few other things. Never having been married has also been a good incentive to learn.

 

[rubiranch]

I fix every meal unless I head to a restaurant.

I don't care to cook and hate doing the dishes even more.

I'm surprised that I have survived as long as I have.

I do cook a mean breakfast and do every morning.

 

[Chukar60]

I cook 90% of whatever gets set on the table here.
Was not always this way and I am not too sure how the heck it happened.
I have been able to cook since I was in my early teens.
We rarely go out to eat. I can cook better food than most places serve.
Gave up on steaks in a restaurant. Not a single one around here who can make a better ribeye than I do. Not too sure if I make a mean ribeye or if our restaurants are that bad?
Good arrangement at home. I cook and Mrs. Honey cleans up the mess.

 

[raisedin99]

I'll be right over!


That's a number 14 Griswold skillet and part of the show was browning up the meat, onions and peppers. I think over the years I could have sold a few Griswold skillets at the cookoffs, as used.

Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me, for example my mind is suggesting to me
that you are wearing a fire extinguisher on your right hip. I'm so glad that it's just
my imagination.

terry

 

[Golddollar]

Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me, for example my mind is suggesting to me
that you are wearing a fire extinguisher on your right hip. I'm so glad that it's just
my imagination.

terry

Your eyes and mind are perfect. The cookoffs have rules requiring having a fire extinguisher nearby, so early on I started wearing a fire extinguisher in a holster. That made a lot of people worry about how hot the chili was.

 

[rubiranch]

I cook and Mrs. Honey cleans up the mess.

Back when I was married this was pretty much the same way things worked in my house.

 

[dirty & hairy]

That's a number 14 Griswold skillet and part of the show was browning up the meat, onions and peppers. I think over the years I could have sold a few Griswold skillets at the cookoffs, as used.

Have you seen what a #14 Griswold skillet goes for these days? Especially a slant logo "ERIE" if you can find one. Collectors pay up, kind of ruined it for us cooks what like vintage cast iron. Nice setup you have, love the fire extinguisher.

 

[bill2000]

I like to cook but my wife does most of our meals. I started in Boy Scouts. Our Scoutmaster was an excellent open fire cook. He outdid himself one Thanksgiving cooking a full blown turkey dinner with biscuits for 20. My first Scout breakfast was french toast. You know, Boy Scout french toast...black on the outside and still runny inside.

Last night I made a killer roast pork tenderloin with a garlic honey sauce. Served with sides of potato salad and green beans. So tender we put the knives back in the drawer unused. Made two so we can have a repeat performance tonight.

 

[BAM-BAM]

Mom got laid up with a back operation when I was about 14...... Dad was still a Lt and working shifts............. so I started in the kitchen ..... heading back to mom's room for instructions/updates/next steps................after getting home from Rifle Team practice.

Dad was able to come home for a hot dinner and to check on mom and me.

Fast forward to after law school.............................

Didn't get married until I was 39 so ..... I just kept at it................

I seemed to impress a lot of dates over the years with home cooked meals with a nice bottle of wine......led to some really good times!!!!!

Started working from home in 2006 with the wife going back to work outside the home in about 2014........been the primary in the kitchen since. The boys tell me they prefer my cooking..... we don't tell their mom!