Cooking Ramble

[forestofglory]

I this morning I made cupcakes with N. We've been doing a lot of baking to keep busy. We made cake, and cookies and quick bread. I love baking with her, it so fun, but I don't generally do it. All the adults in the house are diabetic or at risk of diabetes so we try not to keep too many sweets around.

I enjoying cooking. It's nice to make physical things. When I was learning to cook and for a long time after I would always use a recipe. But now when I make dinner I rarely use a recipe -- or a use one I know by heart. Its nice just make things. I find a lot of cooking is knowing when things look, or taste or smell right. It makes it hard to explain things to other people, especially when they aren't there. But take say cooking an onion -- I know how to cut an onion from doing it so many times. I know what it should smell like cooking, and I know it always takes longer than recipes say it does, and know what it looks like when the onions are cooked. So things I can cook because I know them well are soothing but new recipes often stress me out.

But my favorite thing about cooking is feeding other people! I want to nourish people and give them yummy food. Sometimes this is a bit tricky -- right now everyone in my household is a bit picky and we all have different things we don't eat so finding meals for everyone is a bit less fun. I often struggle with meal planing, and sometimes when its my turn to make dinner I just don't feel very excited by what ever I'm cooking that evening. And I don't often have energy for really complicated stuff.

So I'm really enjoying this lock down baking. I don't have to plan it in advance, I can do it early in the day when I have energy, the kid enjoys doing it with me, its all pretty great.

Comments

[lunabee34]

That sounds like fun. I've been doing more baking than usual, too (although that will stop when we are out of mixes; I don't freestyle gf baking LOL).

[clevermanka]

You sound like the perfect Penzey's customer. Do you buy their spices?

[suncani]

That sounds like the best kind of cooking, fun and relaxed. I'm in that in-between stage where I can do basic things without a recipe and can tell when things like chicken and onions are done but I do still need a recipe to at least glance over.

It's become more apparent how much I've learnt when I'm trying to teach the boy how to cook a particular meal. He asks a lot of questions as I do things instinctively. Which is good, but he's also a lot more precise than I am. He measures dashes of salt for example. Which will make him a great baker (his dough is much better than mine) but does make for some interesting moments.

Do you have a loose idea of things you want to make in the next few days?