Cooking

[dragon_mando]

I noticed the Meat thread was getting a titch busy with general cooking stuff, so here ye be, earthlies, the cooking thread.

 

Personally, I find cooking rather enjoyable when I have time for it. When I don't or I have an ungrateful audience though it's a pain in the butt. I've been cooking since I was six or seven when my mom made me learn to use the toaster for myself and I've been learning ever since, mostly on my own. Because of that, home economics in high school was so easy it was painful no challenge at all, plus there was no room for experimentation/improvement to the recipes without grades being docked because you had to follow the recipe to the letter. That made half the stuff I cooked in that class nearly inedible, imo.

 

When left on my own, I'll usually make Asian-style vegetable soups and such with maybe a little leftover meat, but that's rarely necessary. If you know your spice rack, anything can taste great!

 

Though a couple years ago I had a horrible flop making an omelet with leftover salmon in it...salmon and eggs don't mix. Nup. Dun go thar.

 

More recently (in the last couple weeks) I discovered a rather scrumptious dessert (made it up). A simple cookie dough like mixture made of roughly three parts flour to one part oatmeal to one part melted butter to one part sugar mixed until it's a nice crumble (with more flour or butter added to help it get to a crumbly texture) layered into a bowl with fresh raspberries and milk/soymilk depending on your preference.

 

I must have had that every night for the rest of the week.

[kiffren]

Yay a cooking thread! +1 to you mando : P

 

When I cook for people I go full out and make a nice meal. When I cook for myself, I'm generally lazy and end up making the same thing every day for a week. Last week I rediscovered how easy it is to make hotdogs. Yeah, I'm sick of hotdogs. I had hotdogs and omelets all week. No more eggs and random pieces of pig :<.

 

I have this super awesome scrambled egg recipe, I don't really want to share it as it's kinda a SEKRIT... But lemme give you a hint, garlic and cheese : D.

[dragon_mando]

ooooooh sounds like this Mediterannean recipe I know, kiff...which is absolutely to die for, btw.

 

This thread is making me hungry ._.

[Kila]

Psh, and right when I had finished my post in the other thread, too

 

Personally, I love cooking. It's one of my biggest passions in life. I start culinary school this fall (finally) to receive formal training, but anyone can be a stellar cook without such things. It takes practice and basic understanding, but it's not unreachable c:

 

I cook just about anything and everything. I have no favorite dish or style of cuisine, since I like to experiment. And I love fusion cooking.

 

Baking is fun, too, though I'm not that good at cookies yet.

 

However, I have been told that I make a mean homemade ravioli, french silk pie, artisan breads, and pie dough.

 

Edit: And Kiff, if you add garlic and cheese to just about anything, it'll be a winner.

Edited September 3, 2010 by Kila

[Biggins]

What about garlic and cheese desserts? I don't think those would taste too good. Anyways, I'm a bit of a novice cook. I can cook simple things but mainly by following a recipe. Only time I go alone is with breakfast. That seems to be my specialty.

[dragon_mando]

Kilaaaaaa can I come to your place? We'll rock the joint with awesome yummyness >=D

 

And on that note, I'm greatly craving a quesadilla, made with cream cheese instead of cheddar, due to intolerance to milk and some milk products like cheddar and ice cream. Too bad I'm not allowed to cook after mom and dad go to bed

[rubyshoes]

I cook only because if I didn't, I'd go hungry (can't eat out everyday - costs too much). I do like baking desserts, though. No one taught me to cook. What I know, I've learned myself or gotten off the internet.

[Kila]

What about garlic and cheese desserts? I don't think those would taste too good. Anyways, I'm a bit of a novice cook. I can cook simple things but mainly by following a recipe. Only time I go alone is with breakfast. That seems to be my specialty.

Some cheeses lend very well to desserts. Brie, Marscapone, Ricotta, etc. Brie in particular goes really well with fruits. And cream cheese goes in cheesecake ;D Hell, even Bleu Cheese can fit into a dessert if the flavors are balanced properly.

 

Ever watch Iron Chef? They can turn broccoli into ice cream.

 

Cooking is only limited by the imagination.

 

Dragon Mando, damn straight you can come to my place ;D We'll rock the kitchen >D

 

Edit: And sharp cheddar cheese tastes amazing with apples.

Edited September 3, 2010 by Kila

[rubyshoes]

 

Edit: And sharp cheddar cheese tastes amazing with apples.

Agree. It does and it also tastes good with chocolate cake (as strange as that might sound).

 

 

[kiffren]

And Kiff, if you add garlic and cheese to just about anything, it'll be a winner.

If I recall, garlic and cheese doesn't go to well with avacado, or was that ketchup?

 

The other day I had left over chicken and since I was bored of chicken I decided to play with it. I must've added a bunch of spices, including curry, and it tasted like the most amazing thing ever. Spices = good. : D

[Kila]

Are you kidding me? Garlic not going well with avocado?

 

-gasp-

 

I push a dash of garlic powder and a dash of onion power in my guacamole and it sends the taste over 9000. And I'm sure if you used the proper cheese in guacamole it would also be fantastic. Hell, I put the stuff on my burritos (guacamole, that is).

 

And ketchup on scrambled eggs (with plenty of cheese) is also quite tasty.

[dragon_mando]

Garlic can be a great dessert if you like it well enough...I've heard that there's a Garlic Festival in my area where they even have cakes, cookies, and ice cream all flavoured with garlic

 

And like Kila said, cheeses can be yummeh desserts too.

 

Now what does *not* make a good dessert, at least in my opinion, is anything carrot. I'm not a fan of carrot cake or anything like that, but that's just me

[Kila]

I love carrot desserts. A nice carrot cupcake topped with some cream cheese icing is to die for <3

 

If you guys haven't noticed, I'm really not picky. It's easier to list what I won't eat than what I will

[skinst]

I'm like you Kila I'd rather list what I dislike than what I love.

 

I love cooking. I'll try to cook just about anything I can try, even if I royally stuff it up

 

The only thing I refuse to make from scratch is complex pastries, since I just epic fail at pastries. Short crust or pie pastry is easy enough, though.

 

Anyone else got an achilles heel in cooking? For my mum its Roast Potato's.

[kiffren]

Kila, my brain =/= yours. Stop it :<.

 

If you guys haven't noticed, I'm really not picky. It's easier to list what I won't eat than what I will

 

The only things I really won't eat are really spicy stuff (I like mildly spicy foods) and chocolate. But then again, you can catch me drinking chocolate syrup out of the bottle about once a month. ; - )

I just love random cravings.

[dragon_mando]

The only things I won't actually eat are grapefruit and beets. I'll eat anything else, I just don't really like some of it. Everything I will eat is on a very large sliding scale from don't like to love

[Kila]

Kila, my brain =/= yours. Stop it :<

I will not and you can't make me.

 

I love spicy food and chocolate. Like insanely spicy.

 

But I'm not a fan of beets, parsnips, or pickled fish, to name a few.

 

Especially ludafisk...give or take spelling.

[kiffren]

 

I will not and you can't make me.

 

I love spicy food and chocolate. Like insanely spicy.

 

But I'm not a fan of beets, parsnips, or pickled fish, to name a few.

 

Especially ludafisk...give or take spelling.

pickled fish? That sounds, gross. I'm also not a fan of beets or parsnips, though I love most veggies.

 

Edit: Beets are a vegetable, right? -can't think at 1am-

Edited September 3, 2010 by kiffren

[Syaoransbear]

I like cooking fancy foods, or foods that are ridiculously bad for you. I always figure you can't go wrong with garlic, white wine, cheese, and butter.

 

I can't bake though. I'm not very careful with measurements, and most of the time I mix up ingredients or forget to add ingredients. One time I accidentally got the measurements of baking soda and flour mixed up. I put in something like a cup and a half of baking soda, and a teaspoon of flour. That was quite disgusting. Recently I tried making a cake and I forgot to add sugar. I just stay away from baking now.

 

My boyfriend's brother is very passionate about cooking and is cooking at a pretty nice restaurant right now. He watches all of those cooking shows, and now he's on his way to cooking school. He's what I call a 'food snob' though, and I really dislike these people. When we go out to a restaurant with him, he basically critiques everything that goes into his mouth and says how he'd do it differently or improve it. It can kind of ruin a meal with him around, and now he's too good for restaurants that aren't 5 star quality.

[lightbird]

I'm not a good cook, can make only the simplest dishes, but that's partly due to my unwillingness to spend much time in a kitchen when 1) there's your at home working father who comments everything I do, 2) I should really be hardcore studying (like last year during my study exchange in Bremen).

 

I do adore people who can cook well, and I know some who can cook wonderful things out of simple ingredients.

[Kamak]

I love experimenting with my food... sometimes it turns out good (I've made a peanut butter and ice-cream sandwich using waffles for the bread/wafer ) and sometimes it's come out HORRIBLY bad (rice cooked in a broth with pickle chips).

 

Hell, I even "sexify" (is that a word?) my condiments. It's really amazing how much a dash of balsamic vinegar and some red/white pepper can zip up ketchup and mustard, especially when spread on burgers.

 

I would love going to a culinary school, but unfortunately, I'm unsure if that's the career I want to go into. I had a ton of fun in my culinary class during my senior year, but it was only 2.5 hours a day (5 if we had a lunch to present), and what we worked on was always different. If I go to work in a steakhouse, I'm not going to be making pasta one week and crepes the next, I'll be making steak this week, steak next week, steak the week after that...

 

That just doesn't seem appealing to me... maybe I hate routines? (Why then did I choose to go into Biochemistry, you ask? Who knows!)

 

However, I do hope to go to a culinary school, if only to help hone my skills more so I can successfully create more complex meals and nurture my "chef's intuition" on seasoning.

 

-K-

[Anniepimm]

I used to cook all the time when My family was here now I live on my own I dont cook as much

[lryl]

If it's pasta, I can manage it, and sometimes play around with different ideas. Other than that my cooking is usually limited to box instructions. I'm pretty inept still.

[satyr76]

I love to cook, but I've only made breakfasts so far.

[wondersueak]

I hardly ever cook with box instructions. I can make a pretty mean omelet =P