Describe your cooking skills

Describe your cooking skills.

I can be a good cook. I’ve been a good cook in the past. When we were first married and when we had kids I cooked almost every dinner; we had rare nights out because we were a single income family. I’m a picky eater and therefore I am a picky cook. That was limiting but I still managed, and surprisingly, both of my kids are adventurous eaters, despite being subject to my pickiness.  My son has even become a bit of a “foodie.” Ken has always told me that he liked my cooking…he’s a smart man.

I’m not a very creative cook. I can follow a recipe and have done some improvisational cooking when I realized I was missing an ingredient or two, and most of my improvisations have been pretty edible. For instance, a couple of weeks ago I made beef stew stroganoff instead of ordinary beef stew, simply by adding sour cream to the beef stew at the end of the cooking process. I think a good cook has to have a good sense of taste and I fear that my pickiness limits my ability to be anything more than an average cook. I don’t like vegetables and will not cook or eat any seafood. I cooked fish a couple of times for Ken and was nauseated the entire time. And that fishy smell lingered for days.

I’ve watched Julie and Julia at least a dozen times and I admire anyone who can do all of that prep work. Quite honestly, if it takes a lot of prep time, I doubt I’ll cook it. Wash your beef cubes individually and dry them with a paper towel. Chop this, mince that, blend these- too much work. I’ve looked through the Joy of Cooking and I wouldn’t eat most of those recipes- they contain too many things I don’t like. Betty Crocker is more my style and indeed, she was my guide through the early years.

When I went back to work (my kids were in high school) I began to cook fewer meals, mostly because I didn’t have time. The meals I did cook were also very simple- hamburgers with Kraft mac and cheese, hamburger/chicken/tuna helper, “breakfast for dinner” (always fun, quick and yummy). And once my kids were grown and gone I just about gave up cooking except on the weekends. Ken and I both had substantial meals at lunchtime and so resorted to PB & J or canned soup for dinner. 

I recently got a new oven/stove- a convection oven and it has been fun to rediscover some cooking. A convection oven makes a really moist and tender roast beef, and our Christmas turkey cooked in half the time. It’s certainly different to cook with an oven that hums!

To me, cooking is a bit like housework. You spend a lot of time doing something (prepping ingredients, etc.) that goes generally unseen and unappreciated, and then all of your work disappears once the meal is eaten. Unless you’re an amazing cook, no one will remember a particular meal that you cooked. It was gratifying, however, when my newly-married daughter asked for some of my recipes. And now that we are empty nesters, I might try to cook some new things. Might. No guarantees.