[Alex Altorfer]

Headfellows,

I am lazy and I hate spending time in front of the stove cooking. I wonder how many of you hate it and how many of you enjoy it and why.

I feel like every time I have to prepare food something may go wrong. Like, I may put too much salt in it, or not enough olive oil, or that it may just explode like a science experiment gone awry.

I just stare at the pan an think: "Oh no! How long is this going to take?" Like it’s a major waste of time or something.

The best s#!+ I ever prepared was stir fried veggies, but that was a long time ago. I’m a noodle type guy. Oh, I can fix macaroni and cheese too. Microwave popcorn. Anything frozen.

I understand knowing how to cook a good meal may be a potent weapon to impress a new girl the first time she visits a guy’s place, so I guess I’m lacking in an important area.

Cheers,
Alex

 

[tiberian]

i cook 2/3 of my meals and i enjoy cooking. IMO my own food tastes decent and its cheaper than eating out, besides i can't take fries, burgers and sweet and sour chicken everyday...

 

[chadbang]

Food always tastes better when someone else makes it, so I EAT OUT. It's not so much the cooking I hate, it's the shopping, preparation and cleaning up. All that keeps the restaurant business healthy, in my eyes.

 

[dd3mon]

My girlfriend now lives alone in Indianapolis (2 hrs away) and many weekends I go down to visit. Usually one night we cook (yes we!). I very much enjoy these small moments of culinary freedom.

We generally think of something to make, then I'll Google a variety of recipes to see in general what goes in to that particular dish. Then I like to just add ingredients as I see fit; perhaps inspired from recipes I read, perhaps just my own sense of taste. I see recipes as a globe instead of roadmap - a roadmap will tell you which highways to drive on and how long to stay there to get to Canada from the US, whereas a globe will just tell you "north". Usually things turn out good, sometimes not so good, but always a good time

-dd3mon

 

[Permonic]

I recommend you to change the type of cuisine. Get cookbooks of Chinese (Cantonese, Chiuchow, Beijing, Sichuan, Shanghainese, Hunan) or Japanese or Thai or Korean, etc., etc...and try to make any of their original culinary delights. It would be something new for you and special and you might start to enjoy your cooking.

 

[Mr.PD]

I used to like to cook. Now I am too lazy.

Cooking is fine, but cleaning up the mess is a pain in the butt.
I usually let the wife cook. The once in a while that I cook, she gets stuck with the dishes. I know it's not fair, so I don't do it often.

 

[usc goose]

i love cooking. soul food mostly. meatloaf, fried catfish, dirty rice, gumbo, ribs, casserole, stuff like that. not too healthy the stuff i cook though.

 

[Judge Crandall]

Quote:

Originally Posted by chadbang Food always tastes better when someone else makes it, so I EAT OUT. It's not so much the cooking I hate, it's the shopping, preparation and cleaning up. All that keeps the restaurant business healthy, in my eyes.

Personally, I think homemade food tastes better, if it's decently made. As a college student, I've lived off of take out for the last 2 years, and it's brutal. Just bad for you. If I weren't so lazy, I'd cook more. But you have to shop BEFORE you cook, then AFTER you cook, you have to clean...it's ridiculous.

the Judge

 

[Idiot MD]

I have a roommate who eats about twice as much as I do (and still stays skinny the person!) and contributes about one third of the food that comes into this house. I enjoy cooking but I refuse to perpetuate the imbalance any more than I have to. The mess afterwards is bothersome but like most messes in life, it is unavoidable.

I guess I enjoy creating things with my hands so I enjoy cooking as well. That's the only way I can logically explain it since I don't particularily enjoy eating and face the human requirement with all the gusto of a condemned man (being human sucks sometimes.

) However I also enjoy a good challenge so when I do mess up, I face it as a test of my resources. One time I was making chili and accidentally added four cups of water (I got confused and thought I was making curry at the time.) After trying to boil off the water for a while I came up with the idea of adding macaroni noodles and turned it into chili-roni. It was excellent, lasted many days and gave me a new recipe.

Making mistakes is inevitable but just like science you can make breakthroughs in cooking too. At least that's where I think foods like oysters came from.

 

[Jasper994]

I love to cook for other people, particularly for parties and special occasions. When I'm only cooking for myself though, I make very simple dishes.

 

[Edwood]

I love to cook if the following criteria is met.

#1. I have a kitchen that is large enough for me to extend my arms out and turn 360 degrees with out knocking over something.

#2. I have the time.

#3. Someone else is going to be eating with me.

#4. I have watched FoodTV recently.

-Ed

 

[john_jcb]

I really enjoy cooking and from what everyone says I am quite food at it. Now that it is only my wife and I there are fewer real meals prepared. We work different hours and I will make her dinner when she comes home sometimes. It is hard scaling back and cooking for 2. It is also hard to shop for 2 as it is so easy to buy too much.

 

[Old Pa]

I've been cooking for the last 35 years and the cook around here for the last 20. We eat five nights a week at home and go out two nights, usually Thursday and Sunday to stay clear of the crowds. I see nothing wrong with making SWMBO wash up the last set of cooking dishes in return for the fresh, homecooked meal she just consumed. She's cool with that as long as the final set does not overflow the sink (I have washed up the intermediate set(s) of cooking dishes) and I am there to dry the dishes she washes and listen to her anecdotes of the day without comment.

Cooking just for myself is not as much fun as cooking for others (ie: "audience"). When I'm alone, meals get streamlined and I eat the stuff SWMBO will not eat (baby animals: lamb, veal, ducking, etc.). I also eat the prepared stuff when I'm alone. "Lean Cuisines" and others certainly have improved over the years.

I refer to a significant portion of my cooking as "camp" cooking; large quantities of hearty soups, stews, curries, red meat pasta sauces, etc.; food which improves with age and is suited to being frozen to be enjoyed later. My soup pot (also my brewing pot

) holds a little over five gallons and sits on a propane burner downstairs (away from the kitchen) while being used. In addition, I run a gas grill year round for "burnt dinners", roast chickens and turkeys, and have entre salads for dinner at least once a week. Also serve a fair amount of game that has been aquired over the season; venison, fish, grouse, pheasant, rabbit, and squirrel. About once a month I'll bake up a fresh pizza.

Sometimes I think I'm finally getting the hang of cooking. Haven't had a cooking catastrophe in years, but then kitchen safety is just like gun safety; you have to be careful all the time because the SOB could go off any time. I got into herbs and seasoning, which was my first big step forward. Now I'm getting to where I know by type and weight just how long something's going to take to warm up or cook by conventional oven, convection, or microwave. No problem coordinating grilled meat, green salad, cooked vegetable, side dish to arrive at the table together after having served appetizers for parties of up to eight. Still remember the mother of an old friend of mine (thirty years ago they lived at 67th and Cottage Grove in Chicago) telling me to use my nose while cooking; food isn't going to be done until it smells done. She made some of the best fried chicken I have ever had.

 

[Tyson]

I shop and cook, she cleans and puts dishes away. Works out nicely.

I find having a very good non-stick frying pan and wok make cooking a lot easier, and cleaning up a snap.

Heres a helpful hint for pasta lovers - when you cook pasta, don't put oil in the water, it makes the noodles slippery and the sauce won't stick to them. But, if you have leftover noodles, put them in a ziplock w/a little olive oil so they aren't all stuck together when you are ready to eat them the next day.

 

[md01]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Edwood I love to cook if the following criteria is met. ... #4. I have watched FoodTV recently. -Ed

That's funny! When I'm bussy, I try to stay away from the FoodNetwork channel. Otherwise, I get inspired to make something.