How many of you can cook?

TheDoctor90

As opposed to simply 'preparing'.
I'm a master 'preparer'. I can throw a few ingredients together and make large, calorific, protein filled meals perfect for my goals in 20 minutes, tops. In fact, I don't think I've ever spent longer than that making my food.

BUT

I would like to break into actual cooking. I'd be nice to make a wider range of meals, more ingredients, more flavour and still hit my goals for each meal.

So my question, can you cook (well, not well)? Or do you just prepare food?

If you can cook, how did you pick it up, is it simply a matter of doing it over and over?
My mum's a chef so it'd a bit ridiculous that I fail at everything I make and it seems to take me AGES. Also I have no multi tasking skills so while the tomatoes are burning, I'm trying to flip a steak.

stylistchik

I never thought about that before but I might be a preparer instead of a cook. I usually just throw things together that sound good and balance the meal. I don't do much more than baking, boiling or sauteing so I'm not sure I can help. I have been reading the book "An Everlasting Meal" by Tamar Adler and it is basically about learning to cook naturally and without waste. It's hard to explain but it kind of "unlocks" the natural cook in you... you might want to check it out.

TheDoctor90

Yeah when I've asked this before people have been like 'oh, never really thought about it that way'.
My skills extend to boiling pasta, frying steak and putting something in the oven.
And thanks, I'll have a look at the book.

gingerb85

I can cook. I had to teach myself when I was first married. I did cook a little as a teenager, but my Mama was a fabulous cook and never imagined she'd die when I was 17 and hadn't learned yet.

I love spending hours in the kitchen and love to cook and bake. I generally follow a recipe, but am good at adapting or changing a recipe if it would better suit my family's tastes and/or nutritional needs. But I started by following a recipe exactly and doing it again and again until that recipe came out perfectly every time. I do still need to set timers for almost everything, as I'm the Queen of Distraction. I might not let things burn, but I definitely can get distracted doing another task while task 1 is just waiting for me.

You may want to check out some cooking classes in your area, though, if you are interested in learning. And I also think there are some who are naturals in the kitchen (that would be my middle child) and those who just are not and will need lots of time and repetition (that would be my youngest). I have a friend who could never cook, even when following a recipe exactly it never turned out, and she always hated cooking. Then she started taking classes and slowly but surely she became quite the gourmet chef! Now she loves it and she turns out some fabulous meals.

theoneandonlybrookie

I also can cook, and I'm pretty damn good at it if I say so myself!

I watched my Southern mama cook a full meal every night of my life. So I partially learned from her. However, I taught myself how to cook more elaborately than she did by:

1) Reading a few well-written cookbooks. I highly recommend How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman because of the tips on preparation methods. He gives very detailed instructions. Pie in the Sky, although a high altitude cook book, gives some really great baking instructions.

2) Watching the Food Network and

3) Now I watch videos online if I'm unsure of how to do something.

clur85

I LOVE cooking! I spend most of my sunday in the kitchen cooking, baking, doing something. One of my new year's resolutions is actually to try cooking a new meal every week as I tend to fall into the trap of cooking the same meals week in, week out, so it does just become about 'preparing'. I like to feel like I've created something!

So, maybe that's a start for you, just add in new recipes and meals one a week, so you build up your skills?

vytamindi

I am a tastemaker. Pff... I don't even know what that means, but I learned how to cook once I was on my own. Recipes are a great start, but the best recipes are ones where the ingredients are just suggestions (obviously not talking about baking), and you have to make it your own.

IMO, the most challenged I feel in the kitchen is when I am flat, can't-afford-tacobell broke and have to make do with what is in my pantry. To be honest, that's also where most of my cooking failures come from, but you learn something each time.

One of my favorite chefs (Chef John... check out foodwishes on youtube) stresses that you can follow a recipe but to not feel afraid to make it your own. Be the boss of your dish.

BTW, am I the only one who keeps a mason jar of bacon grease in my fridge? I'm a "southern girl" but I only use it for chex mix.

Sloth_Jog

I have been reading the book "An Everlasting Meal" by Tamar Adler and it is basically about learning to cook naturally and without waste. It's hard to explain but it kind of "unlocks" the natural cook in you... you might want to check it out.

I just read about and was wondering about that book!

I'm a preparer but am hoping that the process becomes more intuitive. I would like to be more of a cook.
Currently, most of the stuff I prepare at home is not necessarily stuff I would ever serve to guests :embarassed:

MrsSWW

I love cooking, I'm never happier than when I have a tone on ingredients and can just wing it. Last night I made something completely random, not one of my best dishes but it was tasty, reasonably healthy, and used up some stuff which would have been trhown in the bin otherwise!

rosebarnalice

I have days when I'm one or the otehr, but in general, I'm a pretty good cook.

You might with a crock pot and some simple soup and stew recipes. Crock pots are really easy, the recipes are simple and easily adapted, and they're a great time saver once you get used to throwing stuff in the pot in the morning before you leave for work.

1953Judith

I'm a cook. One of my challenges with fitness has been to make sure that both my husband and I do cook and enjoy; not just prepare and eat. I would suggest getting a very basic cookbook and reading it as though it is a book (Bittman or Fanny Farmer). Stock your kitchen with some basics (a lot of cookbooks recommend staples). Then start tackling one menu item to cook per day. Prepare the rest simply. After you master one item a day, you can start practicing jazzing up the items you have simply prepared.

Oh and call your mom and ask for advice. Maybe tell her you have some leftover thyme, does she have a recipe or type of food she thinks it will work with. Sometimes we moms are just hovering in the background waiting to be asked (and sometimes our children would just laugh that we think of ourselves as waiting to be asked, but that is another thread).

WishfulShrinking331

I love cooking, I've been cooking since I was really little, I love experimenting in the kitchen, I love baking. It just causes so much less anxiety when you know what is going into the food you are making and you can control the ingredients.

Tori_356

I'm learning and I love to cook!

melsinct

I love to cook, always have. I started off following recipes to the letter. I started out with more simple fare, moving on to more and more difficult recipes over the years (I now bake yeast breads, do more complicated recipes, etc.). I also no longer feel the need to follow recipes to the letter, now I have the confidence in my own skills, knowing what flavors go together, etc. and can take ingredients and turn them into a tasty dish without having to have instructions in front of me.

If you want to develop your skills, keep on cooking. With experience comes intuition and confidence in what you are doing.

pupcamper

I love to cook but don't ask me for a recepie, things rarely taste exactly the same way twice in my house!

I think alot of it is trial and error, when I was younger I used to make different dishes that I found in magazines and cookbooks. Then after a while I started to get a bit more creative and subsituting or adding stuff in. Now I just throw stuff together without measuring or writing it down - which can be a drawback if you really liked something!!

Good luck!

flyingwrite

The more you practice, the better you'll get. I try to think of things logically before I begin. How long does this take? How long should that be in the oven? I approach a meal in three parts, protein, carbohydrate and green vegetable. If one of those three is complicated, I try to make sure the other two are less so. I also measure out all the ingredients first before I begin. This helps most when sautéeing, making soups or sauces or other such dishes that have to cook in a short amount of time. Check out Ellie Krieger's cookbooks, especially _The Food You Crave_. She gives you the nutrition information for each meal and none of her recipes are over-complicated. But they are ALL wonderful.

iamstaceywood

Start wiht soup! Find some great yummy works for you macro and calorie wise and make a batch and preportion it into reheat containers. It will give you the experience of succeeding, maybe learning some new techniques and give you the confidence to start trying harder stuff! If you need recipes, I got you.

tinksmommy2006

Ok a lot of preparers here...What does that mean?? some one said you just throw some stuff in a pan and heat and eat....well that's what cooking is too. cooking isn't as hard...or as long of a process as a lot of people would like you to believe. it it trial and error. the difference is some get more involved then the self proclaimed "preparers" do. don't knock yourself for not being a great cook...if you want to be it just takes some practice:)

Edit: I rarely spend more then 30 minutes making my families food....and 80% of the time it is from scratch with the exception of veggies...i buy our "everyday" veggies from the store and just heat. the only meals that really take longer are things that go in the crock pot or things like a roast.

Hollie_downunder

i used to be able to open a can... or put some frozen food in the oven!

My fiance is a chef and he's given me a world of knowledge and confidence in cooking, i used to be too scared to try!

(though cooking for him is the biggest challenge as he's the fussiest perfectionist with food!)

cramernh

As opposed to simply 'preparing'.
I'm a master 'preparer'. I can throw a few ingredients together and make large, calorific, protein filled meals perfect for my goals in 20 minutes, tops. In fact, I don't think I've ever spent longer than that making my food.

BUT

I would like to break into actual cooking. I'd be nice to make a wider range of meals, more ingredients, more flavour and still hit my goals for each meal.

So my question, can you cook (well, not well)? Or do you just prepare food?

If you can cook, how did you pick it up, is it simply a matter of doing it over and over?
My mum's a chef so it'd a bit ridiculous that I fail at everything I make and it seems to take me AGES. Also I have no multi tasking skills so while the tomatoes are burning, I'm trying to flip a steak.

I have 14 years in healthcare, so I have the edge when it comes to healthy eating for different medical situations...AND, Ive worked as a chef, personal chef and restaurant manager of two stores, and now Im a chef within a Corporation. Fourteen years later, Im still cooking. Unfortunately I got laid off from my medical job last year.

I do ALL of the cooking at home. The mise-en-place, the cooking, the maintaining, marinating, spice rubbing, sautee, smoke, BBQ, you name it Ive done it!

My husband is a spoiled rotten brat... We did a BBQ and Smoke for Christmas dinner this year and let me tell you, that man ate GOOD! We had enough to feel the landlord next door, the neighbor next to him, my daughter and her boyfriend as well!


Today is my day off from work thankfully because Im sick as a dog. But, I am in between prepping up the foods to make a traditional homemade Jewish Chicken-Matzoh Ball soup. Its all Im in the mood for when Im sick. Good old comfort food!

TheDoctor90

But how do you buy ingredients? As a student I live on a weekly basis and buy my food shop weekly (namely because there is only one of me, so don't want food going out of date, and because I eat a lot).
So for example recipes that have a teaspoon of pesto, or a garlic clove or some rosemary...I'd hate to go out and buy those things just to make one meal and then waste the rest...whereas at home my mum can build up a cupboard of all these little ingredients..