“Cream cheese, smoked salmon, lemon, onions, capers?”
“Delete capers. Run program.”
Kathy Reichs, Deadly Decisions
Cooking is on the menu this week. Well, you won’t learn much from my post, because the kitchen is more or less one of my least favourite places. I cook to eat. I eat to feed my body.
Okay, yes, I am a bit more civilised. I do get excited about some dishes, like mum’s cooking – I very much miss the German cuisine, but I crack up laughing when people ask me, why don’t I prepare it myself? They obviously don’t know that I can burn water. Honestly. When the fire alarm goes off in the house in the morning, the girls roll their eyes “mum’s burnt the toast again”.
I suppose if I’d really have to and had more time, let me rephrase that, if I’d make more time, I could certainly come up with something decent. I mean, this family here isn’t starving, we have great meals, but they’re basic. And thanks to who-ever invented the slow cooker – the love of my kitchen life! With this nifty little thing I do make a yummy stroganoff, chicken dish or I’ve even got to make some filled cabbage. Ohhhh yeahhh!
Tonette’s probably shaking her head, she’s the guru with the food, and you really have to come back Friday for her post … although I cannot wait what Jillian, Micki & Jeff have to offer about cooking.
See, I’m the youngest of three girls. The kitchen at home wouldn’t allow for more than three people in there. Seriously. It’s small !! Mum still lives there and when DH first came over to visit he was like ‘holy shit’ – or something more Aussie like. Anyway. I never got in there. They loved to cook so I left them. Fast forward quite a few years, I went to work in a little B & B in Scotland. Short on staff I was asked to boil some eggs – big disaster, because I couldn’t find the “egg-cooking-machine”. Well, needless to say I got kicked out of that kitchen as well.
So finally, to finish this post …. My favourite dishes …. Meals, I do get excited about: I can’t go past fajita or spaghetti. Love mum’s cooking: potato dumplings, sauerkraut, the German breakfast rolls and I’m sure there’s so many more …. I just don’t wanna think about it, because I’m actually getting hungry!
Tell me your favourite meal! Or wanna share a recipe I could try?
Angela Schroeder
Patricia Kiyono
Elaine Cantrell
Jeff Salter
Joselyn
Tonette Joyce
Four Foxes, One Hound 
No, Iris, different strokes for different folks; no head-shaking at you! I am the youngest of three, also,(oldest daughter, only boy, and me), yet I was the one only in the kitchen with my mother.My sister is trying her hand at some cooking late in life, but she just doesn’t have the predilection , patience or time to truly put it all together. My mother was a slave to whatever she made,(not that it didn’t pay off; every old friend and relative still uses the word ‘magic’ when it comes to talking about her cooking); I am somewhere in between. (btw: hearing about YOUR mother’s food is making ME hungry!)
Do I have recipes for you? Any time. I have put my fancy-work and complex recipes tucked away with any inclination I have to show-off to teach basic, easy cooking and entertaining on my other blog:
http://tonettejoycefoodfriendsfamily.wordpress.com/
I need to post more but I welcome all questions and requests. Any one? I hope you come to visit.
Hang in there,Iris; I’m sure your family is eating well!
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Oh yes, everyone is fed well and I really make sure that the nutrional value is there. I’ve been wanting to come over and have a look at your site, probably tomorrow when I have a day off. Who knows, I might surprise my girls with a new dish ?
Yeah mum’s cooking’s devine. I don’t think she’d consider herself a brilliant cook though and probably like me, she’d prefer the office to a kitchen, but she still cooks from the basic to the done d(m)eal – no powdery stuff or pakets! It does make a difference. I always have a big list when we go over to visit her …. and after about a week you can find DH at KFC 😉
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LOL. can’t boil water? Ha.
Well, I don’t yet know what I’ll come up with on Hound Day this week, but suffice it to say, I lack all but the most basic skills in the kitchen.
Like you, I eat because I’m hungry. That’s been a big conflict with some of my family members, because some (esp. my spouse) thinks of a meal as an EVENT. To me, the meal is the amount of time it occupies from when I have to stop what I’m doing until I can start it again. In other words: an interruption.
When people, presumably trying to be gracious, say to me: “let’s have lunch,” they almost certainly do not realize that’s like placing me in a punishment mode.
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Oh, Jeff, I hear ya loud and clear!!!!!!
Event is a good word to describe it ….
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Event: tuna salad
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Iris: runs and hides from the Event !
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I had to learn myself as well. My grandma taught me a few things like chicken and dumplings and donuts but my mom never lets anyone in her kitchen. Even today, she insists on doing it all herself. I’ve done pretty well though. I actually enjoy it.
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LOL – all I remember was grandma (or Oma as we say) having potatoes all the time …. that’s why we have past non-stop until DH kicks me out of the kitchen and starts peeling the potatoes! LOL …. YOU CAN MAKE DOUGHNUTS? Well, if that’s the yummy yummy yummy once, I’d better make sure we come past your place in a few weeks 😀
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Yep. Come on by for a donut!
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🙂 …. keep an eye on a motorhome with aussie flags!
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i will.
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Sorry Iris, I’m not much help either. I can cook basic things, but I haven’t really had to do it all that much. I was the only girl, but my mom made me do homework and practice my music before dinner. And I ALWAYS had homework and practicing to do. So I when I went away to college I learned to cook from my roommates. I lived alone when I started teaching so I was grateful for that. But the guy I married worked the early shift and got home three hours before me. He took over the cooking and hasn’t stopped. The kitchen is his domain, and I’m happy to keep it that way.
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Good on him for taking over! A man for my liking …. thanks for stopping by Patty!
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Burning water?! I have found my kindred spirit! Seriously, it is now a rule that I must inform my husband that I am boiling water. I have this nasty habit of multitasking and forgetting that there’s a pan of water on the stove. Next thing you know, we hear a hissing or gurgling sound from it bubbling over. Usually it’s a milk and butter combo that I’m most guilty of (Pasta Roni – we eat a lot of it – thus a lot of messes.) That’s not to say that I can’t cook, but with three kiddos involved in lots of stuff during that 4-7 time period, it means we eat a lot of takeout. But I decided back in college/early marriage years that it just took 3 good recipes and I’d be set for life. So it’s my sister’s lasagne recipe (which involves a HUGE mess and lots of dirty pans in the kitchen), a shrimp saute recipe, and a beef tips in a mushroom and red wine sauce. The later two are from a recipe card collection. To this day, the hubby still makes requests for those two. He’s a bit OCD, so he can live without the lasagne and the accompanying mess.
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Hahahaha …. yes the “hiss” …. I know that noise. We used to buy cheap cooking pots because I’d destroy them, then we were given an expensive one which survives my cooking extravaganzas.That’s the way to go we found out. But Micki you should try one of those slow cookers. You throw everything (literally everything) in the pot …. and 8 hrs later … voila …. dinner done ! No burning not nothing. 😉 Bew-di-full!
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