"Believer" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:Hello All,
First, let me introduce myself since I am a long-time lurker but first
time poster to this group. My name is Robert, and I live in Topeka, KS
where I work as a computer programmer/prepress graphics artists. One
of my great passions in life is cooking -- I have something like 70
cook-books!
Now, for several years I've endeavored to hone my culinary skills, and
I think I've been fairly successful in this regard, but there is always
still much to be learnt and perfected. Some of my more recent
endeavors have been oven fried chicken (the *real* thing -- not shake
and bake), home-made potato salad, Corn Beef and cabbage, tamales,
peanut butter cups....
(BTW, if anyone wants the recipes to these, then let me know -- they
all turned out delicious.)
So, I figure I'm pretty versatile in what I'm able to make and am
getting my techniques and recipes a little better over time.
The thing is that cooking takes time, and a combination of busyness
(and laziness) often precludes any meaningful cooking ventures at the
end of the day. During the work-week, I will often subsist on such
things as canned raviolis, pre-packaged flavored rice, home-made
hamburgers, etc. Although such items provide nurishment, they do
little to widen my knowledge or increase my culinary repertoire.
So, my question is two-fold. First, am I the only one who is a good
cook sometimes -- i.e. mainly on the weekends? Second, does anyone
have any advice on how someone can still have the convenience during
the week of fast meals while simultenously exercising some degree of
sophistication and skill in their preparation?
Anyway, hi to all. Say hi back and tell me about yourself.
Believer
Believer in...?
Like most suggestions, one of mine is to try to put together one or two
dishes over the weekend or when you have normal down-time, and reheat them
during the busy week.
I cook for one. There are two things I do. First, I always consider the
quantity in terms of how many times do I want to eat the dish. I only have a
fridge-top freezer so anything I make I may be eating for a few days --after
the second day your desire has waned. So I make half-recipes a lot. Try not
to make dishes you cannot vary when you reheat. Otherwise, if you only cook
for yourself you'll be wasting time and food.
Second, keep on hand lots of garnish-type foods. I keep olives, cranberry
sauce, walnuts, peanuts, pickles, cheeses, jars of sauces, grapes and cut-up
fruit, etc. in containers ready to either munch or to use as part of dinner
or whatever. If you get home late from work, you can grill a chicken breast
or reheat a previously made chop from a recipe, pull out your tray of
garnishes, and you have a balanced meal. Or if you need a quick lunch fast,
you pull out the tray and graze along with some wheat crackers, and finish
with a banana you peel on the way out the door. That also helps with
leftovers because you can take a bit of what you've previously prepared, and
with different garnishes end up with a totally different dinner each time.
I also have a ton of cookbooks. I don't care what anyone says, even though I
am a master at internet research, I have cookbooks that I know the page
numbers for stuff I have cooked over the years, and then I love
books --there is no comparison --you can't take your monitor to your
easy-chair and curl up with it and a cup of coffee.
Also, when I consider making an attempt at a new dish, I often take down a
few cookbooks and read about how the same recipe is treated from, say,
Southern Cooking to Le Guide, then come up with unique blends that sound
good to my personal tastes. The best cookbook to keep is one that offers all
of the basics, for reference --once you have the fundamentals handy you can
do just about any recipe.
--
Lefty
Life is for learning
The worst I ever had was wonderful
Quoted message said: