I think the a big part of cooking successfully is paying attention. There have been times in my life when I have been really into cooking. There have also been those times when I am just not that interested and it is easy to get distracted. Distracted cook = failed dishes.
I remember a time I was in a drug store with my first husband. I found him looking at greeting cards. He had one in his hand and his efforts to keep himself from guffawing loudly had his whole body in a kind of concerning tremor. The card face: I wanted to get you something useful for your birthday. Inside the card: but you already have a smoke detector.
Yeah, so amusing.
I did manage to get through Thanksgiving dinner without burning anything, although the mashed potatoes were not hot enough. The next day I set of the alarm with burnt toast.
Sometimes cooking is just what you do to keep fed, other times it is a passion. I like to be invited to dinner where it is a passion.
ReplyDeleteMe, too.
DeleteI do love to cook... when time permits. I find cooking to be an art form and like any art, sometime the muse is with you and other times not.
ReplyDeleteI like thinking of it that way -- as an art form.
DeleteWhen we have cooked as many years as we have, we can't help but screw up now and again. The pie hubby made yesterday had soggy bottom crust, but to his defense I did not supervise and he rarely makes pies!
ReplyDeleteHa! The odds sometimes work against me then/the muse lets me down/I have lost the passion.
DeleteWell we all can't be Mario Batali, chef extraordinaire. A tip for mashed potatoes is to put them in the crock pot on warm with lid and they will be perfect when all is ready to be put on the table. I did that for years. Made them early, put them in the crock pot and when all the other items were ready, put them in a bowl on the table and they were steaming hot and not the least bit dried out.
ReplyDeleteI will keep that tip in mind for the next big meal I cook . . . most likely nest Thanksgiving. I better write it down somewhere!
DeleteI cook because I like to eat.
ReplyDeleteYes, there is always that. I have known couple who always eat out, but I could never do that.
DeleteI am enjoying the kitchen a little more since I moved in with my daughter but I still don't really cook. I put things together. I guess that is good enough until the urge hits me.
ReplyDeleteI like to cook and invent something new.
ReplyDeleteAnd I am sure David appreciates your hobby!
DeleteGood to know the love for cooking comes and goes. Right now mine has gone and I feared it might be permanent. Now I have hope.
ReplyDeleteI have too many hobbies demanding attention, so my focus tends to go in cycles. This time of year, throwing things in a pot with some stock = cooking abowl of soup and that is good enough.
DeleteIf your only mishap was cool potatoes, you did quite well. Bask in glory over the successes, and don't sweat cold potatoes. Burnt toast? Wouldn't that be the toaster's fault?
ReplyDeleteI made a not of the crock pot idea from above.
DeleteI have a temperamental toaster that I know needs watching. Someday I will get around to a replacement.
Someone with a weird sense of humour put a smoke detector very near my toaster . It's probably why I tend to eat oatmeal .
ReplyDeleteYou found an obvious solution although I have been known to leave a pot or a kettle unattended while I go off to do something else.
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