Sunday, August 8, 2010

Cooking and/or Kitchen Adventures

As anybody who knows me knows, I don't cook. If it can't be made using a microwave, a toaster, or cold, I likely don't know how to make it, and the only cold foods I can male are sandwiches and cereal.

Let us explore, for a moment, why I don't cook. Partly, this relates to my fears of pain/injury and failure. I worry about injuring myself on the hot or sharp cooking devices or tools. I also worry about being clumsy. As for failure, I am nervous about anything I am unsure I can do correctly. I do not know how to tell when something done, so I worry that I will over- or under-cook something.

But there are also philosophical reasons why I don't cook. As a feminist, I believe there is a sexist double standard that women are expected to know how to cook, but for men cooking is optional. Amongst my friends, I know many girls who can cook, including some who cook as a hobby or stress reliever.  Among my male friends, I know at least a few guys who do cook. I have no idea if any view it as a hobby. I do not know how or why my friends learned to cook. I just know that most of my friends can cook at least some.

Some of my friends and family keep insisting that I need to learn to cook. Really, in the 21st century, there is no need no know how to cook. It is entirely possible to keep oneself fed by eating out, or eating takeout, fast food, tv dinners, cereal, sandwiches, and other people's cooking. Eating this way may be more expensive, less varied, or extremely unhealthy, but it is all still food. I know a few adult women and men who have never cooked in their lives. I agree that cooking is better in many cases, because cooking is cheaper and usually healthier than most of the other ways to eat. However, that still doesn't mean that I have to learn to cook.

Because I am stubborn, when someone tells me to do something, my instinct is to rebel and do the opposite. Ideally I want to try cooking on my own to find inner motivation for it, but my fear of failure tells me to cook supervised. These two desires conflict with each other and leave me ambivalent about learning to cook.

Despite all that, I've been easing myself into cooking over the past year by focusing on one dish at a time. I've learned to make eggs (sunny-side up, poached, breakfast sandwiches, scrambled, hard boiled, egg salad) and hot dogs unsupervised. With assistance I have baked a cake, made breaded tilapia, Blintz Suffle, and burgers. I have assisted others in making Pasta Bolognese.

Over the last four days I have tried several projects in the kitchen, all of them unsupervised.

First, last Thursday night there were no frozen meals in the freezer, so I took a chance on a TGIF frozen Chicken Fajitas meal that required an actual skillet. The main issue I had was opening the plastic bags and folding their contents into the hot oil. With all 3 of the baggies -- the chicken, the veggies, and the tortillas, I had trouble getting the contents out without burning myself. I think overcooked everything in the skillet, but the fajitas tasted pretty good. My only afterthought taste-wise was that I should have put sour cream on the them. And I learned that I can probably add frozen, skillet-requiring meals to my repertoire, provided I can figure out this folding-in-from-plastic-bag issue.

For cooking adventures numbers 2 and 3 of the week, on Friday evening I made hot dogs again, and on Saturday morning I successfully made poached eggs -- my first time unsupervised. The hot dog was more cooked than last time, and that was definitely better. The eggs were really good too. Only complaint: my dad's 7-grain bread. Every time I eat bread with the word "grain" in the name, I regret it.

Finally, this morning I finally conquered a kitchen appliance I have been avoiding for quite awhile now -- the coffeemaker. Coffeemakers are not that complicated, but for some reason every time I've asked for a demonstration of the machine I've walked away uneasy about using one. Finally this morning I followed my dad's instructions and successfully made coffee, and it went just fine. I'm not sure I'm ready to try my mom's coffeepot-less machine, but I think I'm one step closer.

All in all, I think I learned a few useful skills on the road toward cooking one day. Tune in next week, as I try to use facebook to actually communicate with others, rather than just post status updates.

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