Skip to main content

Cooking



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.

Comments

  1. joehNovember 30, 2017 at 1:31 PM

    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.

    ReplyDelete
  2. RianNovember 30, 2017 at 2:30 PM

    I 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.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. OlgaNovember 30, 2017 at 5:01 PM

      I like thinking of it that way -- as an art form.

      Delete
  3. TaborNovember 30, 2017 at 3:09 PM

    When 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!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. OlgaNovember 30, 2017 at 5:04 PM

      Ha! The odds sometimes work against me then/the muse lets me down/I have lost the passion.

      Delete
  4. Margaret (Peggy or Peg too)November 30, 2017 at 4:18 PM

    Well 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.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. OlgaNovember 30, 2017 at 5:05 PM

      I will keep that tip in mind for the next big meal I cook . . . most likely nest Thanksgiving. I better write it down somewhere!

      Delete
  5. Linda ReederNovember 30, 2017 at 7:53 PM

    I cook because I like to eat.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. OlgaDecember 2, 2017 at 9:26 AM

      Yes, there is always that. I have known couple who always eat out, but I could never do that.

      Delete
  6. BarbaraNovember 30, 2017 at 11:40 PM

    I 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.

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousDecember 1, 2017 at 9:37 AM

    I like to cook and invent something new.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Arkansas PattiDecember 1, 2017 at 10:52 AM

    Good 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.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. OlgaDecember 2, 2017 at 9:31 AM

      I 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.

      Delete
  9. SextantDecember 1, 2017 at 11:47 AM

    If 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?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. OlgaDecember 2, 2017 at 9:33 AM

      I made a not of the crock pot idea from above.
      I have a temperamental toaster that I know needs watching. Someday I will get around to a replacement.

      Delete
  10. SmitoniusAndSonataDecember 1, 2017 at 12:55 PM

    Someone with a weird sense of humour put a smoke detector very near my toaster . It's probably why I tend to eat oatmeal .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. OlgaDecember 2, 2017 at 9:35 AM

      You 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.

      Delete

Post a Comment

I appreciate readers' comments so much. You don't even always have to agree with me.

Popular posts from this blog

It's TIme

 It's been a while since I have posted anything and even my reading your posts is falling by the wayside. I am in Florida now. I have a yard where little attention was spent on landscaping for the past years so I am slowly and (somewhat) methodically addressing that. I also volunteer to work at the pollinator garden and the edible garden I helped install at the UU grounds and I took over the volunteer job of cleaning out the overgrown community garden by my neighborhood mailboxes. The neighbor who was doing that got sick and could no longer attend to it. It's a bigger job than I'd thought at first -- not only overgrown with weeds, but the plants that are wanted there are in life and death competition for each others' spaces. And two walks a day, morning and evening, so Levi can keep up with addiction to canine social media and a daily rousing came of stick or ball midday take up another chunk of my time. I have a weekly meditation group that I co-facilitate, and my own ...
10 comments
Read more

Life Goes On

There is nothing like a visit from the grand children to remind one that life goes on.  I spent Friday night at my daughter's and then brought the kids back home with me.  I did not get to see so much of them this past summer and it was a birthday gift to my daughter (who just turned 40!) to have a couple of days to herself. She probably spent them in her son's room playing Lego StarWars.  Dane tried to teach me how to play this video game--a hopeless task if ever there was one.  "Concentrate, Grandma!  You have to concentrate!"  I do have a hard time with sustained concentration lately, but in this case I had no clue what it was that needed concentration.  He finally took the controls away from me (thank-you!). It's amazing how long he can amuse himself at my house being out side on a scooter or helping me in the yard, especially if it involves a hose.  Inside, they both sit and draw or craft for hours.  Just before bed, Dane did say, "N...
41 comments
Read more

Eggplant

Mike and I considered ourselves soul mates, but we definitely were not culinary mates.  Mike liked what he liked and disliked what he disliked and he never changed his mind about things like that.  He did not eat mayonnaise.  He did not eat tomato sauce.  He did not eat cooked vegetables except for corn, peas and green beans.  He did not eat onions cooked or otherwise.  He did not eat casseroles ever since they were a combination of things he didn't eat anyway. I did not like mushrooms as a kid and eggplant just made me gag, but my tastes changed,  Foods I found disgusting as a child are now among my favorites--mushrooms, eggplant, avocados, asparagus, eggs, spinach, brussel sprouts, herbs and spices. I will admit that I never developed a taste for liver (nor do I want to). I made this Moussakka a while ago and ate it every day for a week.  I froze half of it but ended up thawing it out right away. It consists of sliced eggplant layered...
31 comments
Read more