I have been cooking since I was fairly young. My mom thought it was important that my sister and I knew how to feed ourselves if she was gone for whatever reason so she started teaching us to cook in the microwave as soon as we could hit the buttons. (Just so you know, microwave scrambled eggs are beyond yucky.) I won’t say I can’t cook, or even that I dislike cooking, I am just not as good at it as I would like to be.
I make some dishes really well. My mashed potatoes are fan-freaking-tastic. I make some chicken dishes really well. Things from boxes or mixes generally are within my grasp. I can feed myself and others every night with some sort of proficiency but I have very few things I make that are actually really impressive. I think it would be super cool to be make full meals of finely crafted food.
I am never going to be the kind of woman who will spend hours every day lovingly preparing a four course meal for her family. I am not the high heels and pearl necklace type of girl. I am okay with sometimes a good meal is going to be shake ‘n’ bake pork chops, yellow rice, and a bagged salad. I don’t believe my value as a woman is at all based on my abilities to make a homemade pie with the perfect lattice crust. My self worth will never be based on the juiciness of my roast. I am not just that interested in cooking and baking. I salute those who are. I read some of the stuff my facebook friends post and I get sparks of envy that they can make such fantastic things. I am not that person.
I do enjoy doing things for people I love though and preparing a great meal for my friends and family is something I find satisfying. Every once in awhile I like to be able to feed the people I care about something I took time and made to be special. There is something about that that appeals to the momma bear side of my personality.
I also think I want to be a better cook for the same reason I want to learn basic auto mechanics. I think there are certain things everyone should know about the world around them. It pisses me off that I can’t point out a fan belt from a piston and if something goes wrong with my car I have to rely on someone else. I loathe being that woman on the side of the road locked in her car dialing her cell phone. Great food is the same way for me. I want to be able to go to gatherings and bring something other than mashed freaking taters. I mean my taters are good, but being a one trick pony isn’t my thing.
So I should resolve to try and learn at least one new recipe a week. I could even resolve to post the results on this site because I know I will be more likely to do things if I feel like it is for my site. I should and I could but I don’t know that I will.
Geeks a Geeking