Sunday Stealing--Cooking (a bit late)

 

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.

4.  Cooking or baking: what’s more fun? What’s more difficult?  Definitely baking is more difficult and cooking more fun.  There is no wiggle room in baking if you want to get it right  I was married to a pastry chef for 12 years….his recipes were all measured down to the microgram.

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.

9.   Is it cost-effective to do your own cooking? Can you save money by cooking? Definitely.  We do a lot of freezing with out vacuum sealer and freezer.  So a lot of meals end up being 6 meals (for example, Carne Adovada, Borracha Beans, Korean Short Ribs, etc.)

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.