Cooking, are you good or do you suck at it?

[Progster]

I can cook, but tend to get distracted and end up burning it, or clumsy, then I burn myself or drop things. Right now I have such a burn on my arm that hasn't healed yet.

 

[George Newman]

I eat about five dishes that I like and am pretty good at cooking them. This makes grocery shopping easy and cooking less complicated. I don’t enjoy eating so cooking is more of a necessity to stay alive than an event or comfort.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

I'm in a wheelchair, and my kitchen is so cut off from the rest of the house, that I can't get in there with my chair. It's unfortunate, because now my teenage daughter has had to do all the cooking.

At her age, I didn't know how to cook anything, not even noodles or rice or oatmeal. But she's had so much experience in the past two years, that she's a bomb cook. You should see some of the amazing restaurant quality dishes she pumps out!

I used to love cooking. During the great recession, we were so poor that I had to make everything from scratch. I'd make applesauce, and then boil the apple skins to make applejuice. I'd make homemade cheese, and use the whey in cakes, pie crusts, and breads. We even used lentils to make amazing fried veggie burgers.

Vegetarian tamales made with beans were one dish that was very nourishing and cheap to make. At one point, we were so poor that I could afford masa, but not the corn husks, so we went outside and picked maple leaves to wrap and steam the tamales in. Oh my, what a wonderful flavor they infused into the corn! Sort of sweet and smoky.

Nowadays, we're much better off financially, and we eat more meat and veggies than before, so the meals my daughter makes are amazing. But I can't deny that I really, really miss cooking.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

Last night we had sushi for dinner, and I was still hungry afterward, so I asked my daughter to whip up this delicious recipe:

Toast an onion bagel, and spread cream cheese on top.

Next, top each half with canned salmon. Oh my! What a simple, yet amazingly delicious meal! My daughter hates salmon, as I did at her age too, but it just meant more salmon for me!

 

[OkRad]

I love my Instant Pot

Is it possible to make tea in there? I am looking at them, but I really need tea. My hotplate is on the way out :-O

 

[Amy Stone]

Is it possible to make tea in there? I am looking at them, but I really need tea. My hotplate is on the way out :-O

I never tried it but yes. Here is a recipe for iced tea but just don't chill
How to Brew Iced Tea in Your Instant Pot

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

Is it possible to make tea in there? I am looking at them, but I really need tea. My hotplate is on the way out :-O

It would be a terrible waste of space and electricity. Instant Pots are gigantic and take forever to heat up. It's better suited for making a roast.

Get a little electric kettle for tea, you can probably find one at Walmart for under ten bucks.

 

[watersprite]

For tea and instant coffee, etc. Get an electric kettle with automatic shut-off. I know from experience that they’re best. lol

 

[Nitro]

Some of my best sauces were made from cleaning out the fridge and the freezer.
I start off with tomato sauce and build from there, adding ingredients on the fly.
To me, a recipe is sometimes only a suggestion and can be altered to suit your wants and tastes after trying it their way first.

My great grandmother taught me the ways of the kitchen. She had a vast knowledge of making do with what she had to work with, often substituting ingredients she didn't have with ones she did. I suppose the Great Depression sort of forced that on her generation.

My Mom, rest her soul, was a horrible cook

Her idea of spaghetti was tomato sauce and some powdered crap called Spatini dumped over noodles in a thin and weak slurry.
My sister and I would doctor it up, adding either sugar, honey or even Karo syrup to it to knock back the acidity, then we would hit it with homemade wine that the neighbor made and always shared with us. The next step was to tweak the sauce with a run thru the spice rack.
We always smiled and kicked each under the table when Mom would proudly announce how good it came out each time, knowing nothing about what we had done to get it that way

When I was a a younger person, she would prepare a baked tuna casserole that was originally reserved for the once a month Parent Teacher Association meetings both of my parents were in charge of.
It was pretty gross as I recall, a few cans of tuna, mushroom soup, milk and generally leftover vegetables dumped into a Pirex dish and baked until it formed a crust.
Under the crust was a runny stinky mess.
She was providing for us on a night she wasn't available to cook, which was fine until it turned into something a bit more "interesting".

Later, I was witness to the devastating effects clinical depression had on her.
She spent most of her time in bed, which earned her the nickname of the Sleeping Bag
She always dragged her butt out of bed each Sunday and prepared a proper roast beef and all the trimmings dinner.
On Monday nights, the tuna fiasco would begin again, with the leftover veggies added from the Sunday meal.
On day two, the mess was stirred up and another can of tuna added along with more milk and cream of mushroom soup plus some added frozen veggies.

It became a six night a week routine for many years, where our only option out of it was for us kids to take control of her kitchen and provide for ourselves before she could fire up the tuna again.
We still call it the PTA dinner to this day

After I moved out and went on my own at 17 and a few months, I refused to eat tuna again for nearly 20 years


You learn to cook in a hurry when you butt is hungry and all you were being fed was the slop for dinner, so I guess what I learned from Big Grandma was pretty awesome in the bigger picture

 

[Nitro]

It would be a terrible waste of space and electricity. Instant Pots are gigantic and take forever to heat up. It's better suited for making a roast.

I do a lot of pot in the pot cooking in mine because it eliminates cleaning the machine's pot and steam grate each time I use it.
For the most part, a stainless bowl will suffice and all I have to do with the machine is dump out the water in the pot and wipe it dry.
Never seal the lid on one during storage either, because it holds in moisture and may create a new problem.

 

[NeilM]

I guess I'm a fairly good cook. I'm on an unusual and quite restricted diet so things have to be prepared a certain way. I bake most of the bread I eat. If I'm up to it I will cook meals fresh; if not, I have stuff frozen in individual servings I can call on. When you live alone, you have to allow for such situations.

Back in the day (when I could eat a lot more dishes), I made a great pizza, using my own crust and ground pork in the toppings. I even made apple pies! Again with my own crust and fresh apples.

Oh, and I love my Instant Pot! Could not live without it. There's a lot of them out there but for me nothing compares to the Instant Pot brand. I started with a knock off from one of the shopping channels which was defective out of the box. It took 6-8 months back and forth with the manufacturer to get that straightened out. So while I was waiting on them I bought the Instant Pot which has performed flawlessly for four years now. In fact I am seriously thinking about buying a second one in case it does go south, simply from over use. I don't want to be without one.

 

[OkRad]

Some of my best sauces were made from cleaning out the fridge and the freezer.
I start off with tomato sauce and build from there, adding ingredients on the fly.
To me, a recipe is sometimes only a suggestion and can be altered to suit your wants and tastes after trying it their way first.

My great grandmother taught me the ways of the kitchen. She had a vast knowledge of making do with what she had to work with, often substituting ingredients she didn't have with ones she did. I suppose the Great Depression sort of forced that on her generation.

My Mom, rest her soul, was a horrible cook

Her idea of spaghetti was tomato sauce and some powdered crap called Spatini dumped over noodles in a thin and weak slurry.
My sister and I would doctor it up, adding either sugar, honey or even Karo syrup to it to knock back the acidity, then we would hit it with homemade wine that the neighbor made and always shared with us. The next step was to tweak the sauce with a run thru the spice rack.
We always smiled and kicked each under the table when Mom would proudly announce how good it came out each time, knowing nothing about what we had done to get it that way

When I was a a younger person, she would prepare a baked tuna casserole that was originally reserved for the once a month Parent Teacher Association meetings both of my parents were in charge of.
It was pretty gross as I recall, a few cans of tuna, mushroom soup, milk and generally leftover vegetables dumped into a Pirex dish and baked until it formed a crust.
Under the crust was a runny stinky mess.
She was providing for us on a night she wasn't available to cook, which was fine until it turned into something a bit more "interesting".

Later, I was witness to the devastating effects clinical depression had on her.
She spent most of her time in bed, which earned her the nickname of the Sleeping Bag
She always dragged her butt out of bed each Sunday and prepared a proper roast beef and all the trimmings dinner.
On Monday nights, the tuna fiasco would begin again, with the leftover veggies added from the Sunday meal.
On day two, the mess was stirred up and another can of tuna added along with more milk and cream of mushroom soup plus some added frozen veggies.

It became a six night a week routine for many years, where our only option out of it was for us kids to take control of her kitchen and provide for ourselves before she could fire up the tuna again.
We still call it the PTA dinner to this day

After I moved out and went on my own at 17 and a few months, I refused to eat tuna again for nearly 20 years


You learn to cook in a hurry when you butt is hungry and all you were being fed was the slop for dinner, so I guess what I learned from Big Grandma was pretty awesome in the bigger picture

This is one of the most touching and poignant posts I have read on here. Your mother's attempts to feed and nourish and yet being so depressed and how you recognized that and brought light into the mix....the spaghetti story made me laugh, the tuna tale almost brought me to tears. I don't know what is worse....the suffering of an ill-equipped and caring mother or the effects it has on her kids. All around the grist for much thought.....Thank you for posting this.

 

[Nitro]

This is one of the most touching and poignant posts I have read on here. Your mother's attempts to feed and nourish and yet being so depressed and how you recognized that and brought light into the mix....the spaghetti story made me laugh, the tuna tale almost brought me to tears. I don't know what is worse....the suffering of an ill-equipped and caring mother or the effects it has on her kids. All around the grist for much thought.....Thank you for posting this.

I didn't hurt us, it actually made us stronger.
I never once looked back on my Mom as being neglectful, she was dealing with her own struggle, something most of us are no stranger to.

 

[Nitro]

I guess I'm a fairly good cook. I'm on an unusual and quite restricted diet so things have to be prepared a certain way. I bake most of the bread I eat. If I'm up to it I will cook meals fresh; if not, I have stuff frozen in individual servings I can call on. When you live alone, you have to allow for such situations.

Back in the day (when I could eat a lot more dishes), I made a great pizza, using my own crust and ground pork in the toppings. I even made apple pies! Again with my own crust and fresh apples.

Oh, and I love my Instant Pot! Could not live without it. There's a lot of them out there but for me nothing compares to the Instant Pot brand. I started with a knock off from one of the shopping channels which was defective out of the box. It took 6-8 months back and forth with the manufacturer to get that straightened out. So while I was waiting on them I bought the Instant Pot which has performed flawlessly for four years now. In fact I am seriously thinking about buying a second one in case it does go south, simply from over use. I don't want to be without one.

I got started the same way with air fryers

 

[watersprite]

@Nitro Your post made me smile, though very sorry about your mom’s depression.
Me and my little brother (rip) used to call that tuna casserole stuff “tuna grungus.”

 

[Aspychata]

I was thinking about all the insightful posts here. Yesterday l realized l have a tab OCD because l failed into splitting my Laughing Cow cheese exactly in half with a knife to spread on on new bread l was toasting. When it didn't cut perfectly, l was a tab upset. So cooking can bring out this but l love to cook. The only things l hated growing up was my parent's fruit cake. It had the same flavor which it soaked in liquor cloth wrapped for at least a half year. You could build a
house with these little brick cakes. We made root beer one time, and occasionally the bottles would pop their lids, and send our dog hiding.

The saddest thing as a child l ever ate was Cornish game hen. It looked like a dead bird sitting on my plate and l wasn't allowed to leave until it was finished. At some point, l became smarter, and just fed the downstairs toilet or the dog so that l could leave the table. Suffice to say, l never did that to my daughter, finish your plate rule. Let people eat what they want to eat.

 

[Nitro]

There was a fruit cake that got gag gifted around my family for decades

 

[clg114]

I got started the same way with air fryers

My wife has tremors, so I do all of the cooking for us. However, I am not a very good cook. We are always looking for something new. A few weeks ago we got a air fryer. It works good, but is very, very slow. As far as I'm concerned, I can do the same thing in the microwave. Only a lot faster.

If I am going to cook slow, I use a crock pot. For a stew, roast or ham & beans, it is very good. Put everything together and turn it on in the morning. Six or seven hours later you have a wonderful meal, ready to eat.

 

[clg114]

I was thinking about all the insightful posts here. Yesterday l realized l have a tab OCD because l failed into splitting my Laughing Cow cheese exactly in half with a knife to spread on on new bread l was toasting. When it didn't cut perfectly, l was a tab upset. So cooking can bring out this but l love to cook. The only things l hated growing up was my parent's fruit cake. It had the same flavor which it soaked in liquor cloth wrapped for at least a half year. You could build a
house with these little brick cakes. We made root beer one time, and occasionally the bottles would pop their lids, and send our dog hiding.

The saddest thing as a child l ever ate was Cornish game hen. It looked like a dead bird sitting on my plate and l wasn't allowed to leave until it was finished. At some point, l became smarter, and just fed the downstairs toilet or the dog so that l could leave the table. Suffice to say, l never did that to my daughter, finish your plate rule. Let people eat what they want to eat.

The finish your plate rule makes people fat.

 

[Bort]

I think I'm decent at cooking. I don't like cooking for other people, though. I know what I like, so I can add more or less of what I like, and if I don't like what I cooked, then I'm the only one who has to eat whatever was cooked.