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In the excitement leading up to my new kitchen I've been thinking a lot about food. Well, actually, I like to think about food, but really, I've been thinking more about cooking. Especially since tonight I just cooked enough food for about 20 - 24 people by trebling a favourite dish. :-) (I'm bragging.....)
I've been reading my cooking magazines (well, ok the ones in the toilet) and I just wonder - what the hell is with the naming of things these days? For g*d's sake, it's not a "caramel custard" it's a goddamned creme caramel. It's lemon butter, not lemon curd. (Although that's more arguable than creme caramel.) I've seen others, I just can't remember them to whinge about. *grin* How many other atrocities do they commit in the name of food?
And what's with this grabbing a recipe from the original Women's Weekly cookbook, and then calling it new and inventive? If the only thing you've done is change the cheese to low fat, then I don't think it's at all inventive. Downright boring, and if all cookbooks weren't produced by the same people I'd suggest plagiaristic too.
And these stupid bloody advertisements which are card in the middle of the magazine for ripping out. I rip them out and throw them straight in the bin without even bothering to look, they're just TOO annoying to leave in, because if you're in the loo and you open the mag, gee whiz, it's the STUPID PAGE YOU GET EVERY TIME WITH SOME HORRIBLE CHILD COVERED WITH CHOCOLATE TRYING TO LOOK CUTE. If I *ever* have the urge to feed my kids chocolate for a "healthy afternoon snack" then please, shoot me, shoot me now. It's chocolate people, about 100% excess sugar if you ask me. :-)
I also wonder where the authors buy their food. One magazine I *love* has a price on every single picture of food that they have made. I think that's fantastic. But some of the others are a bit stranger - I just find the prices or the expected end cost of a meal a bit difficult to swallow. Maybe, when I'm full time unemployed then I might be able to ferret out the sort of specials they find. I can but hope.
Anyways, back to my kitchen. Um, any one know any cabinet makers? We need someone to build the damned kitchen now. I'm startingh to develop a side list of things I will need for my new kitchen: 1) More cast iron stuff. Big cast iron stuff, like a skillet that will go from the front of my cooktop to the back of my cooktop. Barbeques inside! Burnies! 2) A bigger pot. I have two huge stockpots that has taken things each like.... 8 kilos of tomatoes plus 2 kilos of onions plus a litre of other stuff.... and yet it's still just not quite big enough. They are *almost* big enough - if I'm careful, it doesn't spill. But I'm soooooo not careful. I'm a messy cook. Well, compared to some I guess. Not as neat as Sheldon, that's for sure. I usually spill something messy, I was lucky tonight, Chesh cleaned up the grated cheese for me from the carpet. :-) I have to get my pot back from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mynxii too, before I forget. It was a part of my wedding present from my parents.
I have started bribing myself... my cooking has some serious holes in them that I haven't bothered about whilst I have electric hotplates. With gas coming soon, I am going to be strong and tackle some scary stuff that I've wanted to do for about ten years. Such as: caramel. Yes, I have never boiled sugar until it was brown and sticky. Deep frying. We used KS's deep fryer she gave us on the BBQ wok burner, but it was so much fussing and it was outside and it was OK.... but not enough for me to say "Yeah, I'm Ok with that." :-) Curries. Mmmm. It's kind of harsh to have someone close by who is so good at them. Makes me want to give up now and just ring him and say "Hey, can I come over for dinner tonight?" Seriously, I had cravings when I missed out for two weeks the other day. :-) Fudge. I can't cook fudge; it seems to burn on the edges and be raw in the middle. So I stopped that. Cook on any heat other than 180 degrees in the oven. *shrug* Hey, it works. Whenever I follow instructions it burns. Plus, I might practice the boiling egg thing for a bit, because I'm not too crash hot on that either. I start well, but then I just lurk in the kitchen stressing until the microwave timer goes off, saying it was 8 minutes, and then I stress some more until I've shelled some of the eggs and proven they are all cooked through.
My initial bribery is asking ST to show me how to make a dessert he did for a pot luck the other week. When my kitchen is installed, I will be rewarding myself with learning new skills! Another bribery I have for myself is making SG show me how to cook.... well.... anything. Since he helped us with the purchase etc, then he also has the right to cook in my kitchen whenever he wishes. *grin* Like I'll be stopping *anyone* from cooking for me. I find it amusing that people what like food and like cooking tend to hang out. Some one was telling me how at a terracon, one cottage had 8 out of 9 people who liked to cook, and another cottahe had one person out of nine. Bit unbalanced there! :-)
I'd have to say, after all this chatting, that I am not a good cook. I am an enthusiastic cook, but not necessarily good. :-) But I like what I cook, and so does Chesh, so it's all good in the end.
I've been reading my cooking magazines (well, ok the ones in the toilet) and I just wonder - what the hell is with the naming of things these days? For g*d's sake, it's not a "caramel custard" it's a goddamned creme caramel. It's lemon butter, not lemon curd. (Although that's more arguable than creme caramel.) I've seen others, I just can't remember them to whinge about. *grin* How many other atrocities do they commit in the name of food?
And what's with this grabbing a recipe from the original Women's Weekly cookbook, and then calling it new and inventive? If the only thing you've done is change the cheese to low fat, then I don't think it's at all inventive. Downright boring, and if all cookbooks weren't produced by the same people I'd suggest plagiaristic too.
And these stupid bloody advertisements which are card in the middle of the magazine for ripping out. I rip them out and throw them straight in the bin without even bothering to look, they're just TOO annoying to leave in, because if you're in the loo and you open the mag, gee whiz, it's the STUPID PAGE YOU GET EVERY TIME WITH SOME HORRIBLE CHILD COVERED WITH CHOCOLATE TRYING TO LOOK CUTE. If I *ever* have the urge to feed my kids chocolate for a "healthy afternoon snack" then please, shoot me, shoot me now. It's chocolate people, about 100% excess sugar if you ask me. :-)
I also wonder where the authors buy their food. One magazine I *love* has a price on every single picture of food that they have made. I think that's fantastic. But some of the others are a bit stranger - I just find the prices or the expected end cost of a meal a bit difficult to swallow. Maybe, when I'm full time unemployed then I might be able to ferret out the sort of specials they find. I can but hope.
Anyways, back to my kitchen. Um, any one know any cabinet makers? We need someone to build the damned kitchen now. I'm startingh to develop a side list of things I will need for my new kitchen: 1) More cast iron stuff. Big cast iron stuff, like a skillet that will go from the front of my cooktop to the back of my cooktop. Barbeques inside! Burnies! 2) A bigger pot. I have two huge stockpots that has taken things each like.... 8 kilos of tomatoes plus 2 kilos of onions plus a litre of other stuff.... and yet it's still just not quite big enough. They are *almost* big enough - if I'm careful, it doesn't spill. But I'm soooooo not careful. I'm a messy cook. Well, compared to some I guess. Not as neat as Sheldon, that's for sure. I usually spill something messy, I was lucky tonight, Chesh cleaned up the grated cheese for me from the carpet. :-) I have to get my pot back from
mynxii too, before I forget. It was a part of my wedding present from my parents. I have started bribing myself... my cooking has some serious holes in them that I haven't bothered about whilst I have electric hotplates. With gas coming soon, I am going to be strong and tackle some scary stuff that I've wanted to do for about ten years. Such as: caramel. Yes, I have never boiled sugar until it was brown and sticky. Deep frying. We used KS's deep fryer she gave us on the BBQ wok burner, but it was so much fussing and it was outside and it was OK.... but not enough for me to say "Yeah, I'm Ok with that." :-) Curries. Mmmm. It's kind of harsh to have someone close by who is so good at them. Makes me want to give up now and just ring him and say "Hey, can I come over for dinner tonight?" Seriously, I had cravings when I missed out for two weeks the other day. :-) Fudge. I can't cook fudge; it seems to burn on the edges and be raw in the middle. So I stopped that. Cook on any heat other than 180 degrees in the oven. *shrug* Hey, it works. Whenever I follow instructions it burns. Plus, I might practice the boiling egg thing for a bit, because I'm not too crash hot on that either. I start well, but then I just lurk in the kitchen stressing until the microwave timer goes off, saying it was 8 minutes, and then I stress some more until I've shelled some of the eggs and proven they are all cooked through.
My initial bribery is asking ST to show me how to make a dessert he did for a pot luck the other week. When my kitchen is installed, I will be rewarding myself with learning new skills! Another bribery I have for myself is making SG show me how to cook.... well.... anything. Since he helped us with the purchase etc, then he also has the right to cook in my kitchen whenever he wishes. *grin* Like I'll be stopping *anyone* from cooking for me. I find it amusing that people what like food and like cooking tend to hang out. Some one was telling me how at a terracon, one cottage had 8 out of 9 people who liked to cook, and another cottahe had one person out of nine. Bit unbalanced there! :-)
I'd have to say, after all this chatting, that I am not a good cook. I am an enthusiastic cook, but not necessarily good. :-) But I like what I cook, and so does Chesh, so it's all good in the end.
