Cooking
1. How often do you make food and eat it? More lately. The OCD that prevented me from cooking out of fear of not being perfect has been mitigated by a miracle med (at least for me). I am much more relaxed about cooking, and am enjoying it SO much more. I cook 2-3 times a week, hubs cooks the rest (he loves to cook, btw). Here's my latest dish--beef shawarma with homemade tzatziki sauce and greek salad:
2. Do you consider toasting bread, preparing instant noodles, or
boiling an egg to be cooking? Why or why not? Not so much. I think it really takes combining various
stuff.
3. What’s your favorite dish to make? I have a killer Shrimp
and Grits recipe that is probably my most frequently made dish. I “borrowed” it
from Blue Apron way back in the day and made it my own.
5. Who did most of the cooking in your house when you were growing up? My mom, definitely. I don’t think my dad could cook. She laid three squares a day for 50+ years,
even though she worked full-time. It was
really hard after dad died, she lost a ton of weight because she didn’t have
anyone to cook for. Thank goodness we
moved past that.
6. How have you learned the cooking skills that you have?
Recipe, Grandma, Mom, Blue Apron, and YouTube of all things.
7. Have you ever taken a cooking course? If so, what did you
learn? No, but I’d love to take some courses at Santa Fe Cooking School, it’s
on my five year plan.
8. Have you tried cooking food from another culture? What did
you prepare? How was it? I love to cook things from different
cultures, including my favorites, Cajun and New Mexican. I’ve cooked Korean, Chinese, Greek, and German. I just pick
what looks good to me. Here's seafood gumbo a' la' Lisa.
10. Would you rather do the cooking or do the washing up afterward? Hubs
is terrible at cleaning as he goes. I
clean when he cooks. I also clean as I go
when I cook. So I guess I clean.
11. Do you use recipes to cook? If so, where do you get the best recipes? Yes, definitely. I use Blue Apron, recipes from my Facebook
New Mexico Food group, and general searches.
12. Have you ever tried to prepare some food and just totally ruined it? What happened? Oh yeah.
13. Do you prefer cooking at home or eating out at a restaurant? Why? I
like eating out. Mainly to get OUT,
especially in the pandemic. I love all
the different types of food we can get here, believe it or not, Albuquerque/Santa
Fe is a very diverse city, with a wide-ranging food scene. I love trying new cuisines!
14. Is cooking a social activity for you? Do you like to do it with other
people, or do you prefer to do it alone? I prefer to be on my own in the kitchen, although hubs plays
sous-chef sometimes.
15. Do you have a lot of cooking equipment? How often do you use it all? Do
you have any pieces of equipment that you rarely ever use? OMG, we
have ALLLLLL the cooking gadgets.
Sous-vide, Instant-Pot, Rice cooker, Cuisinart, Air Fryer (technically
part of the Instant-Pot). Honestly, my
favorite is my dutch oven. I love
braised meats, and I got this dutch oven at World Market after Christmas one
year for 30$. That is DIRT cheap for an enamel-coated,
cast-iron 6 qt pot. I use it often. It makes great gumbo, and it isn’t a Le Creuset,
but it will last a lifetime.