I LOVE cooking!

- I think I usually make stuff with lots of spices and bold flavors. I'm not a fan of bland tastes or plain tastes... I use lots of peppers and I pretty much love all cajun and creole cooking. I also making desserts Some of my favorites are black bean lasagna rolls, beef stew (not spicy but very flavorful), pineapple pig pickin' cake, stuffed bell peppers, eggplant parmesan, apple squares, blueberry cake, chile, chicken 'n rice (the way my mama makes it), grilled chicken w/ basil, thyme, and cilantro w/ seasoned veggies, sicilian meatloaves, pumpkin maple pie and New Orleans chocolate bourban pecan pie... I also learned how to make crepes from my old job.

- I didn't really start cooking a lot til college. A few Christmas's ago, my grandma gave me a hand-written recipe book with all of her favorite ones that she made. Needless to say, it's the total jam and I LOVE IT.. So basically, I've learned to cook from that (with tips from my Grandma and Mama).

- I really want to master my grandma's seafood gumbo recipe. I also want to learn how to make a real souffle, etouffe, jumbalaya, Texas Delite, some special pancakes, new egg recipes, pastries - lots

1/7/2010 10:23:13 AM

I usually find a recipe, give it a shot, and everyone in the house tells me that it's good, so I guess I'm a decent cook.

Lately I've been making a lot of different soups and chilis and they've been hits.

1/7/2010 10:26:28 AM

Jeff knows this, but I LOVE cooking

- ribs, steaks, chops, seafood, soups and stews, stirfry of all nationalities, and love baking. I love to brine various meats to ensure maximum tenderness/juicyness/flavor. I tend to lean towards making things sweet/spicy and have to watch it when cooking for others who don't like spicy food

- Mostly self-taught through trial and error, but I'm a huge fan of Alton Brown and Tyler Florence and use a lot of their methods. I love taking a sunday and spending a few hours cooking up something ridiculously complicated but soooo delicious

- I would like to learn more Greek influenced cooking as well as vietnamese/thai/azn. I have trouble with azn sauces, mostly getting it to the right consistency. I know there is sometimes cornstarch involved but I just need to practice more. I miss using my grill pan, but I live in a smaller place than I use to and can't ventilate as well as I need to.

[Edited on January 7, 2010 at 10:33 AM. Reason : .]

1/7/2010 10:31:56 AM

I also enjoy cooking!

Every Thursday I get together with a girl friend and we cook up all sorts of things. I also got Culinaria Germany for Christmas so I plan on learning some good german cooking. I learned a little from my mom and am learning as I go with everything else.

We cook anything and everything, whatever was on special is probably for dinner

1/7/2010 10:35:20 AM

I like to prepare soup and seafood dishes:

Cioppino
Seared Tuna
Ceviche
Shrimp Gumbo
Shrimp Etouffee
Crab Cakes and Salmon Cakes
Chili
Stuffed Flounder
Tuna Carpaccio

But I really haven't cooked in about 8 months bc I don't like to cook for one.

I used to work at a seafood restaurant and picked up a few recipes there. I also LOVE food network and Top Chef, so I get a ton of recipes from there. Top Chef is my fav for inspiration.

[Edited on January 7, 2010 at 10:42 AM. Reason : .]

1/7/2010 10:41:18 AM

i enjoy eating.

1/7/2010 10:41:50 AM

We know.... pudgy

1/7/2010 12:28:16 PM

i make a mean wiener schnitzel

1/7/2010 12:30:09 PM

^i think i'd like to try that

1/7/2010 12:30:29 PM

you'll love it, best wiener ever

1/7/2010 1:27:31 PM

so i've heard

WINK WINK

1/7/2010 1:28:26 PM

word on the street and such

1/7/2010 1:29:16 PM

I make a mean pig pickin cake and beef stew

1/7/2010 1:34:17 PM

Quote :

"I would love to learn how to make bread. Not that I think it would be hard, but I've just never taken the time to learn."

Making bread is a lot of fun but time consuming. I rarely have time for it these days. I recommend checking out http://www.thefreshloaf.com if you want to start breadmaking.

1/7/2010 6:08:02 PM

ThePeter cooks and I enjoy it very much

1/7/2010 6:11:06 PM

-I usually make chicken, spaghetti, sausage dishes, and occasionally pork, steak, chili, salmon with sides of rice, potatoes, pasta and steamed vegetables. Pretty standard stuff, but I use different seasonings from my mom to make shit taste good. I cook pretty much exclusively on the stove top, and sometimes venture into the oven for shit like baked potatoes and steak.

-Mom taught me how to make some of my standard dishes, and how to cook in general. I still call if I'm not sure how to do something . I got a lot of experience as a cook at Andy's for about a year or year and a half.

-I'd like to learn more about steaks, asian food, spicy food like Cajun stuff, and some other seafood dishes like shrimp and scallops. I'd like to learn how to grill better too. I can grill, but I don't really know past "heat it up and put the meat in there".

1/7/2010 6:28:41 PM

Quote :

"^^k ill be there this weekend"

i'm so sad i missed this.

you and thumper can come up. we'll do an 80s marathon and i'll bake

1/8/2010 1:57:19 PM

only if we watch krull

1/8/2010 2:00:26 PM

k

on second thought - i dunno what that movie is

[Edited on January 8, 2010 at 2:01 PM. Reason : .]

1/8/2010 2:00:45 PM

only the most badass 80's movie ever



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=py5dRkvsAkM

1/8/2010 2:04:29 PM

yeaaaaa

i dunno bout that

1/8/2010 2:05:09 PM

hahahaha, you'll love it, how many movies have both cyclops and aliens

NONE

1/8/2010 2:07:14 PM

KRULL THE WARRIOR KING

haven't you seen How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days LunaK???

1/8/2010 2:43:26 PM

um i have - i don't remember that part though

1/8/2010 2:43:56 PM

she named his penis Princess Sophia

he suggested she name it something more manly, like Butch, Spike, or Krull the Warrior King

and then she named that ugly yappy dog Krull

1/8/2010 2:44:36 PM

I also make some half decent pizza. Cooking some up tonight

1/8/2010 7:11:06 PM

<--- This guy

I just made a loaded baked potato and pan fried an Italian herb seasoned chicken breast.

1/8/2010 7:26:51 PM

^^do you make your own dough? i haven't done that yet but i'd like to try.

1/8/2010 7:27:28 PM

whoa, ima change the name of penis to KRULL, thats badass

1/8/2010 7:30:24 PM

^^ Pizza dough is super easy. Whenever I make pizza I use my own dough

1/10/2010 7:27:48 AM

Quote :

"I know there is sometimes cornstarch involved but I just need to practice more. "

ha! there is your problem. do NOT use cornstarch. it's tapioca flour! and mix it with cold water before you add it to your sauce.

i like to make oven fried chicken (with cayenne & paprika), something mom calls baked chicken (just sour cream, cream of chicken soup, crumbled ritz crackers), cheese & broccoli chicken (stovetop), lots and lots of stirfry (husband is azn), swiss beef (cube steak, tomato paste, crushed pineapple, onion soup packet), spring rolls, azn noodle bowls, spaghetti, lots of pretty basic stuff.

i'm picky and my vegetable selection is pretty slim. i've been working on forcing myself to like more. i read in a magazine that if you make a kid try it 10 times in a row, they'll learn to like it. so far that has worked and i now like broccoli although it has to be plain except in that one dish, fresh and less cooked (like still crunchy) green beans, and i LOVE asparagus. i'll eat a whole bundle by myself. i make it w/ olive oil, margarine, and garlic. i looovvveee garlic on anything. other vegetables i'll eat are green beans southern style, small baby peas, butter beans, tomatoes, potatoes if they count.

1/10/2010 10:05:56 AM

I usually make chicken or lean beef, either broiling, braising, smoking, or grilling. However, when I'm not cutting weight, my specialties are Spaghetti a la Carbonara and Chipped Beef Gravy

1/10/2010 10:17:28 AM

-What types of food do you usually make?

Right now, I am on Weight Watchers and focusing on recipe renovations. I am trying to still make the foods that my husband likes (lots of carbs, lots of cheese), but swapping out ingredients to make the dish healthier and bulking up the dish with fresh vegetables where possible. Last week's main dishes were:

-Pasta Alfredo
-Italian Vegetable Pie
-Turkeyburger Casserole
-Grilled Pizza
-Potato Chowder

-Where did you learn to cook, or who taught you? (if anyone)

My grandmother had me standing in a chair at the stove scrambling eggs at 4 years old. I spent weekends and summers at her house next to her in the kitchen as she cooked 3 times a day for family and farm hands who would drop in.

My mother is the queen of dessert. Homemade ice cream, cakes and icings from scratch, candies and other sweets. I grew up with her always making a little of this and that.

-What types of food would you like to learn how to make?

Beef. My mother went vegetarian for a few years and she never really made the transition back to red meat and my grandmother was all about cooking heart healthy, so my expertise in the kitchen runs thin when I'm called on to fix something like a steak or beef roast.

1/10/2010 11:03:51 AM

-I think in general I like to make things from scratch, usually with recipes so I don't mess it up My absolute favorite thing to make and eat is my mom's BBQ chicken, and I make good stuffed shells. Apart from that, I really enjoy baking and am pretty good at it.

-I learned to cook from my mom, I suppose, and also from getting recipes off the internet and Food Network and trying them out. I don't know where the baking thing came from, except finding recipes and using them.

-I would like to learn to make a greater variety of foods. I'm kind of in a rut as far as real food goes, and I'm kind of picky, so it would be nice to know what I could make that I would like.

1/10/2010 11:09:30 AM

I would like to make this suggestion to all of you in this thread. If you have the extra $20 to spend, buy this book: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0471287857/?tag=googhydr-20&hvadid=1615701941&ref=pd_sl_7m6o2ru1wv_e.

It is not so much a cook book (though it does have some recipes) as much as it is a book for helping compose a dish. It has extensive sections that are designed to help you pair flavors and foods. It was a mandatory book for us to have in culinary school, and is probably the one book from then that i consult whenever i want to make something new.

1/10/2010 12:56:51 PM

^ Just so happens I have an Amazon.com gift card

1/10/2010 12:58:39 PM

I bought one of those crockpot cookbooks that uses five ingredients or less. You have to be an idiot to not be able to cook good shit with one of those things.

BTW, you can make some badass pork barbeque with a crock pot.

1/10/2010 2:33:02 PM

making cube steak with brown mushroom and onion gravy
mashed potatoes
and green beans

1/10/2010 5:52:23 PM

Quote :

"there is your problem. do NOT use cornstarch. it's tapioca flour! "

Ehh, there really isn't much difference between cornstarch, tapioca flower, katakuri starch, etc etc considering what small amounts it is used in recipes. You're fooling yourself if you think there is.

1/10/2010 8:35:10 PM

This thread title boggles my mind.

Why would there be people that don't cook but enjoy cooking? How would they know they enjoyed it?

Seems redundant, or confusing. I expect better from you, emce.

1/10/2010 8:39:52 PM

i love to cook and i make a lot of stuff from scratch since i have a gluten allergy. i have to be careful i dont eat any wheat flour or i get really sick

i learned basic cooking from home ec in middle school. i learned to cook a lot of dishes from my dad and great grandmother. they're awesome cooks

i can make anything.....ribs, steak, fish, pasta, fried meatballs are some of my signature.

1/10/2010 8:41:03 PM

eh

I know people that say they enjoy cooking... but are too lazy to do so.
also, please stop poking holes in my thread Shawna... it's rude, and it hurts my feelings.

1/10/2010 8:42:11 PM

I like to cook but I get tired of doing it because I teach Foods at a high school so it gets old.

I usually make white meat - turkey, chicken, and lean fish. My boyfriend and I don't really eat red meat unless we can outdoor grill a steak and maybe something with ground beef once in a blue moon.

I learned how to cook as I taught my students. My mom never allowed me to come in the kitchen when I was younger (it was really small) so I really didn't know much about cooking.

I want to learn how to make sushi...although it is not "cooked" I want to know how to roll it.

1/10/2010 9:01:31 PM

hello pawprint

1/10/2010 9:03:09 PM

Hello EMCE.

1/10/2010 9:07:30 PM

^^^ Making sushi is so much fun and super easy! Just look up a youtube video of rolling sushi and it should take you about five minutes to learn

[Edited on January 10, 2010 at 9:09 PM. Reason : .]

1/10/2010 9:09:03 PM

Quote :

"Ehh, there really isn't much difference between cornstarch, tapioca flower, katakuri starch, etc etc considering what small amounts it is used in recipes. You're fooling yourself if you think there is."

lies. it makes a difference. if you can't tell then you're doing it wrong.

1/10/2010 9:47:46 PM

Or you're doing it wrong

1/10/2010 9:56:07 PM

i'm just going by what my azn husband and his mom do, but by all means...

[Edited on January 10, 2010 at 10:59 PM. Reason : ]

1/10/2010 10:51:28 PM

last week I wanted to try my hand at cooking seasonal winter vegetables which ive never really eaten or had any experience cooking. Went to the farmers market and asked for whatever they had. I made..

- Roasted apple, leek, and butternut squash soup
- sauted poppy and paprika parsnips
- Maple syrup, clove, and star anice roasted rutabagas and sweet potatoes
- garlic and thyme roasted beets

1/10/2010 10:58:13 PM