I thought maybe it was time for a topic that was a little bit lighter than the recent ones, so I thought I'd talk about one of my hobbies, cooking. It's not a recent fascination, my daughter P and I used to watch a lot of Food Network (Emeril and Alton Brown mostly) when she was younger and I greatly enjoyed it. Especially Alton Brown since he went out of his way to explain the science behind things - Emeril was/is a very good "showman", but frankly most of what he made - especially on Emeril Live (which is usually what P and I would watch) wasn't food we'd make/eat, and looking at what he was preparing versus the previously prepared stuff he pulled out of the oven - it wasn't even close, even to our untrained eyes.
As much as I liked to cook, I more or less avoided it up until maybe a year or so ago. Before that the extent of my culinary adventures were frozen pizzas, finger foods in the fryer, and so on. I didn't do much beyond those kinds of things, although at some point I'll have the share the story of P and I trying to make beer battered chicken and homemade fries - but that's for another time. It was almost a shame that I didn't start cooking sooner as over the last few years I was on the receiving end of several different pieces of kitchen equipment as gifts and we picked up a few on our own - the best one we picked up was Kitchen Aid stand mixer at Best Buy. It was a display model that had no box, but it was I believe 40 or 50 percent off and I had some gift cards so it didn't cost me anything and it's actually probably gotten more use than anything - although even that sat mostly unused for several years.
Part of the reason I didn't do much cooking was that when M and I first got married we were sharing a house with my Mother, Sister, and her son. My Mom and I had first leased, then purchased the home, although it didn't work out very well for M and I, but that's also a story for another time. The list of people swelled over time to include our daughter P, as well as my sister's second husband and second child. Part of the "arrangement" was that I paid the house payment and certain utilities and my mother purchased groceries, cooked, and paid the balance of the utilities. Once we sold the house and M, P, and I moved into the townhouse I was working a part-time second job to help cover a down payment on a house and as such I often didn't get home until 11:30pm or in some cases Midnight or a bit after. P was in middle school so she'd be in bed by then and M was working overnights which meant she came in at 11pm so we seldom were home together. As such there was a lot of fast food and such, although M would go out of her way to make things I liked when she could. Moving into the house, since I'd be paying well over the majority of the bills, and no longer worked the second job, part of the arrangement was that M would cook dinner so I had no need to as while she's by no means a "chef" and didn't have much of a repertoire, she did make an effort to make things I liked and what she did make was pretty good.
However, as I said about a year ago I started making occasional meals, and over time it's become such that I make the vast majority of the dinners - which is generally the only meal we all eat together. What actually started it was me trying to come up with some chicken strips that mimicked Long John Silver's Chicken Planks as I really love those. I've gotten *reasonably* close, but not as close as I'd like on those. Now I by no means consider myself anything special in the kitchen, but I do make an effort and for the most part I think the majority of things are pretty good. The vast majority of my recipes tend to come from Pinterest, although they almost always have to be modified due to what M, P, or J likes - mostly M since P really would be happiest having chicken nuggets every meal. Additionally I try to make enough to feed everybody and have some leftovers for M to have on her lunch since she works overnights and/or J to take for lunch at a minimum. Sometimes this is easier said than done since M2 is a *huge* eater, but most of the time he doesn't eat what I make (he mostly eats "tuna wraps" or "peanut butter wraps"), but when he does he can demolish whatever is left over. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful when he eats what I make, I just wish I had a better idea when he was going to so I could adjust the quantities accordingly.
Sometimes the meals can be as simple as crock pot hot dogs (we actually all like those from time to time), to more "fancy" things such as baked brie or chicken kiev - both of which J really loves, and surprisingly enough M also loves the baked brie. Some things come out better than others, but for the most part things tend to come out at least decent and I think more often than not above average to very good. Now of course that's often simply my opinion as J would say anything I made was great and M doesn't give much feedback - I tend to have to see how much she eats or whether or not she eats any leftovers. But regardless of if they are simple meals or complicated meals; whether they are alright, not so good, or awesome - I enjoy the time in the kitchen - though my feet don't always agree.
Since I do enjoy cooking these days I think I'm going to start writing about it a little more often. Perhaps that will be sharing the occasional recipe, or giving my thoughts on a piece of equipment, or simple tossing out some random culinary thoughts - hopefully it'll be a nice break from typically more serious topics I try and write about.
Well it's *really* late - nearly 4am - and I need to get a nap in so I can be up for work, so with that I'll bid you all goodnight. :)
- M
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