How did you learn how to cook?

[tharv17 0]

I have always feared cooking. If its not boiling water to make pasta and then dumping pasta sauce on the finished pasta, I am clueless. How did you learn?

[SkydiveStMarys 0]

Watch the Food Network!! Seriously.


Bobbi

A miracle is not defined by an event. A miracle is defined by gratitude.

[Mostly_Harmless 0]

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Watch the Food Network!! Seriously.


Bobbi

I second that. Also visit there website. They have tons of information on it along with plenty of recipes that can be grouped by show or food category (if you watch it and like a certain cook you can see what else they have etc..). Oh and just try to experiment, if it taste bad throw it out and try again.

_________________________________________
www.myspace.com/termvelocity

[SkydiveStMarys 0]

"Oh and just try to experiment, if it taste bad throw it out and try again."

What about the starving kids in Africa!!?? Or you could just feed it to the neighbors dog.....






Bobbi

A miracle is not defined by an event. A miracle is defined by gratitude.

[Mostly_Harmless 0]

Quote

"Oh and just try to experiment, if it taste bad throw it out and try again."

What about the starving kids in Africa!!?? Or you could just feed it to the neighbors dog.....






Bobbi

I bet those starving kids would turn down a bunch of those recipes I first tried out. I tried to feed it to the dog but he thought I was trying to put him down.

_________________________________________
www.myspace.com/termvelocity

[skysmurf2 0]

Have been cooking since I was 12 (10 years). Don't know why I started as my mom is a really good cook but I love cooking and had to do it, was always making food out of playdo and 'inventing' drinks. I also enjoy watching tv chefs but I just cook whatever I want. The more you cook the more confident you will feel with 'creating.' Also the more you cook the more innate your judgement of taste and combinations will become. I do believe that at least some aspect of cooking is innate but it can be also learned; learning is simply trial and error (it also helps to write things down - something I always mean to do but never actually do!) There is a world of differences when it comes to styles of cooking from 'michelin' to 'student' styles and not everyone can cook certain ways but everyone can cook

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[SkydiveStMarys 0]

Bobbi

A miracle is not defined by an event. A miracle is defined by gratitude.

[skymama 37]

It's really not too hard to follow a recipe. Get a cookbook with the type of food that appeals to you and just try it. If they use a term that you don't know, just look it up on the internet. If you cook something that sucks, just throw it out and order pizza.

She is Da Man, and you better not mess with Da Man,
because she will lay some keepdown on you faster than, well, really fast. ~Billvon

[LisaM 0]

Other. I just learned by doing and trying new things.

~ Lisa
~ Do you Rigminder?

[SkydiveStMarys 0]

"How did you learn?"

I watched my Mom and Grandmother. I love to cook! BUT, my deal is that when I make a huge meal, the last thing I want to do is eat it. I get tremendous joy watching others enjoy the fruits of my labor! Call me, but I do.

Bobbi

A miracle is not defined by an event. A miracle is defined by gratitude.

[Icon134 0]

My knowledge and skills in the kitchen are a combination of several factors including (but not limited to)
1. learning things from my mother,

2. taking homeeconomics in Jr. High (everyone had to take it... but I still learned stuff in the classes... btw, I can sew too... both from Home-Ec and from my mom )

3. I read cookbooks and follow instructions well

4. I've worked in resturants, as a line cook... the place where I worked also allowed the opertunity to experiment occasionally (try out new ideas for entres and such...)

5. practice, practice, practice... recipes don't always turn out right the first time... sometimes it takes a couple of mistakes to figure out what I need to do to make something right.

Livin' on the Edge... sleeping with my rigger's wife...

[JENNR8R 0]

A good place to start is doing an internet search on simple recipes, easy recipes, or quick recipes. Ask questions about anything you don't know before you start. Make sure you have all of the ingredients and try it out when you are not in a hurry. You just might enjoy it after a while.

What do you call a beautiful, sunny day that comes after two cloudy, rainy
ones? -- Monday.

[mailin 0]

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I watched my Mom and Grandmother. I love to cook! BUT, my deal is that when I make a huge meal, the last thing I want to do is eat it. I get tremendous joy watching others enjoy the fruits of my labor! Call me, but I do.

I can't use my mom as a rolemodel - I went vegetarian for 8 years because she was such a bad cook (I still can't eat bbq chicken *shudder*)... but. I'm the same way with cooking. I don't get to experiment like I want to because there are never people to eat it... I end up throwing out alot. The hubby doesn't like alot of foods or vegetables, so it really limits what I can cook, but when I do I rarely eat... I just like that everyone else enjoys it.

Now baking, I love love love to bake and do that frequently (ok, maybe too frequently).


Jen

Arianna Frances

[yardhippie 0]

I guess I learned a bit from my Mom, but later on both parents worked late, so if my bro and I were to eat I had to cook. We got tired of eating the same old things so I branched out. I picked up a few things here and there (and still do).
My brother is now a chef, and I make some mean dishes myself.

Goddam dirty hippies piss me off! ~GFD
"What do I get for closing your rig?" ~ me
"Anything you want." ~ female skydiver
Mohoso Rodriguez #865

[Michele 1]

I learned by burning water. Literally. At least 3 times. Then I figured out you had to watch things...

Over time, I've become a decent cook with some "special" recipes that are called for when pot lucks come around, or I go over to a party...

Try expanding what you already know. Steam some veggies and put it into the pasta sauce. Broil a chicken breast and slice it into a salad. Broil up some sausage and cut it up into the pasta sauce...stuff like that. Then experiment even more. Like someone else said, if it doesn't taste good, then toss it.

Kitchens are only scary to the uninitiated.

Ciels-
Michele

~Do Angels keep the dreams we seek
While our hearts lie bleeding?~

[MLKSKY 0]

Quote

I have always feared cooking. If its not boiling water to make pasta and then dumping pasta sauce on the finished pasta, I am clueless. How did you learn?

I learned to cook by watching my mother. She was a stay at home mom and the MOST fantastic unofficial chef on the planet. I love to cook--absolutely love it--more than I love to eat. I love to see people enjoying the food that I make. I am actually better at baking than cooking.

For me, cooking is an art and also like chemistry. It's all about balancing the flavors--I rarely use recipes when I am cooking, so if I use say 8 potatoes to make mashed potatoes, I think okay how much butter would I use for 1 and mult it by 8. BIG RULE--NEVER DOUBLE/TRIPLE the amount of salt in any recipe--its not necessary and you will make it too salty!

[tharv17 0]

I think part of the problem is that I am not a very picky eater and good restaurants surround my apt so its easy to be lazy.

I have watched food network a few times and stared blankly at a few cookbooks. I guess I just have to pick a week and try to cook every night and see how it goes.

Thanks for all the help so far!

[wmw999 2,558]

I was a cheapskate, so I was highly motivated. I'm also not scared to screw up.

A roommate had a copy of a great introductory cookbook ("The Impoverished Student's Guide to Cookery, Drinkery and Housekeepery" -- no longer in print ) that was short and interesting to read.

The idea here is that cooking is just figuring out what temperature and degree of cookedness you like some foods at, and making it happen. Look on the bag of beans, and follow the directions. Always add sausage if you eat meat -- it's a great addition to beans. Start with instant rice (preferably brown), and then make it. Presto -- cheap nutritious food.

And remember that many "ethnic" dishes (curry, goulash, chili, beef stew) are really just ways to disguise the fact that one's ingredients aren't all that fresh.

Wendy W.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[valjumps46 0]

I can not cook. I can bake.

I can make a mean chicken pot pie, biscotti, cake etc.

"I'm going to marry my novels and have short stories for children."

BLuE sKiES & aPpLE PIeS oh and I'm "M" A-ZIng

[jceman 1]

Being a sole kid, I spent a lot of time in the kitchen with both my Mom and my Grandma -- both excellent cooks. Grandma had a catering business and I learned how to make radish roses and fancy crudites by the time I was in second grade.

I started expanding my culinary skills after watching Graham Kerr in "The Galloping Gourmet" back in the late '60s and again after Martin Yan's "Yan Can Cook" and Justin Wilson's shows in the '80s.

I'm a big fan of the Food Network; it's the default station if there's nothing special I want to watch.

Faster horses, younger women, older whiskey, more money.

Why do they call it "Tourist Season" if we can't shoot them?

[masterrig 1]

I learned by watching my mother and grandmother cook, when I was growing-up. Later, it was the 'Galloping Gourmet' on T.V.


Chuck

[Squeak 17]

I learned by getting very hungry and broke, so I could not afford take out anymore and either cooked my own, or went hungry......I chose hunger quite a few times, I friggin HATE cooking

You are not now, nor will you ever be, good enough to not die in this sport (Sparky)
My Life ROCKS!
How's yours doing?

[popsjumper 2]

Never did. Learned my lesson the hard way...spent a week in the burn ward at the hospital and 6 weeks in recovery from making popcorn.

AND my brother spent 5 weeks with his right hand and arm bandaged to the elbow from making french fries.

Screw all that...where's the delivery menu?

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

[SpeedRacer 1]

I've never understood adults who say "I can't/don't know how to cook."

First of all, it seems to me that food preparation is just one of those skills all functioning adults have to have.

Secondly, if you know how to read, then you know how to cook. They've got these things called COOKBOOKS!!!

At grad school and at work, I've always had to learn new & difficult procedures: how to sequence DNA, how to isolate different types of proteins, how to perform cytoxicity assays, how to use new & different types of analytical or purification kits, etc.

WTF is so difficult about learning a new cooking recipe????

Speed Racer
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[normiss 868]

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