Often when making small talk with friends and acquaintances, I tell people that I don’t cook. It’s just easier than admitting the truth–that I can cook, and when I have a good clear recipe or some experience with what I’m doing, I can actually cook well. Most of the time, though? I just don’t. I mean, effort. And then you do, and there’s dirty dishes! And people who say they want things like ribs and then you put all the effort and time into making ribs and they don’t eat them. (looking at you, my child…)
There are, however, bunches of reasons to cook one’s own food. Health, for one–pretty much anything you make at home is going to be better for you than that same thing bought in most restaurants. All that sugar and salt and nasty stuff they put in there? That’s not a bug. That’s a feature. They are trying to get you addicted to their food! And it works. Oh my yes, it works. If I drive by Burger King and the smoke from the broiler drifts through my car…yeah. I love my Whopper with cheese. They are seven hundred fifty calories, but I love them.
Another issue, of course, is cost. A Whopper with cheese (as if I only get a Whopper when BK lures me in!) is now what, $5? Take the family and I’ll spend $25-30 easily. For that I could buy all the fixings for a meal at home, and still have money left over, and still eat better food with less garbage in it.
But effort…
I’m trying, though. Periodically I do that. Once I followed most of Leanne Ely’s menus for a couple weeks, years ago. I liked that. They came with a shopping list. It was actually easy! For a while. Then I stopped.
When I get busy, or tired, or stressed, or depressed, cooking is the first thing to go. I can’t tell you how much of my life I’ve lived on sandwiches. For a time in my twenties, I lived on white bread and bologna sandwiches. Morning, noon, and night. ::shudder::
Lately I’ve been trying again. I’m a firm believer that you can always teach an old dog a new trick if you really try, so I figured I’d give it another go.
Actually, I didn’t think “I should start cooking again.” Somehow or other, I stumbled across a cooking show that inspired me–Jamie Oliver’s Superfoods.
I’ve been watching a lot of Jamie Oliver since. Known as “the Naked Chef” because he likes to keep food simple, he’s an awful lot of fun to watch. He clearly loves what he’s doing–and he loves showing it to viewers. He’ll tell you to “whack” something in the oven or to put in the blender and give it a “razz.” He seriously makes it look so easy. One of his shows is turning five ingredients into food in a matter of minutes, and as he says in the beginning, a long list of ingredients can put anyone off, and “I want to get you all cooking!”
Well, to my astonishment, he’s done it for me, at least. I’ve only cooked one recipe from one of the shows so far, but I’ve actually cooked something several times this week, and I’ve used techniques and shortcuts I’ve seen Jamie do.
I’m going to cook that linguine one day. Soon. You watch.
Did you know that olives taste better if you buy them with the pits in? I was doubtful, but I tried it, and tonight I had to stop myself gnawing the entire jar of green olives I bought. (Though, sadly, I did have to gnaw–the technique Jamie used to pit his olives did not work for me. Either I flubbed it, or green olives don’t let go like Kalamata olives do.)
I made a rub, and actually applied it to ribs on Sunday! I never wanted to deal with it before, but Jamie says “get your hands in there” so I got my hands in there.
Probably I’ll never be one of those people who cooks dinner every night. I’ll be happy if I start cooking every other day. That’ll leave me the day between to clean up, and eat leftovers. In sandwiches. Wouldn’t want to shock my system.
That makes sense, right?
Do you have a favorite cookbook, or a celebrity chef who makes you feel like you can do it too?Lay it on me, I’ll need all the inspiration I can get to keep this going…