Sunday, February 05, 2017

Kitchen Questions



I love to cook, and it shows.  I am overcoming my fear of baking, the pastry trauma from childhood has taken a lot of work to get past.  So how about a few questions about the kitchen.

1: Do you like to cook? 
2: Do you like to bake (pastries, cookies, cakes)? 
3: When cooking do you follow a recipe or wing it? 
4: When baking, do you follow a recipe or wing it? 
5: How did you learn to cook and or bake? 

My answers: 
1: Do you like to cook?  Well I answered this above, I love to cook.  I like shopping for interesting and quality ingredients and cooking. 

2: Do you like to bake (pastries, cookies, cakes)?  Baking is harder for me.  I am getting better at it. One issue, is if I bake it, I eat it, and I need to control that.  I have been baking most of my bread for the past 5 months.  

3: When cooking do you follow a recipe or wing it? I wing it. If I look at a recipe, it is a starting point for me, never to be followed precisely.  I can sometimes replicate a dish I have eaten, without being told what is in it or how it is prepared.  I drive hubby crazy, because I don't write down how I made something.  

4: When baking, do you follow a recipe or wing it? I am more likely to follow the recipe.  Slowly I am learning technique.  What things should look and feel like, so I can stray from the formula, and wing it.  

5: How did you learn to cook and or bake? I spent a lot of time watching my English grandmother, the one who was not a great cook, a little time watching my mother, and a lot of time experimenting.  I have read hundreds of cook books, watched cooking TV, I am largely self taught.  I would like to go take a cooking class one day - just for fun - and to drive the instructor crazy by winging it. 

7 comments:


  1. 1: Do you like to cook?
    No
    2: Do you like to bake (pastries, cookies, cakes)?
    Yes....cakes

    3: When cooking do you follow a recipe or wing it?
    wing it..

    4: When baking, do you follow a recipe or wing it?
    Always ..you cannot wing baking

    5: How did you learn to cook and or bake
    My grandmother, who was a basic but wholesome cook


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  2. 1: yes
    2: yes
    3: wing it
    4: wing it
    5: my maternal grandmother, then trial-n-error on my own

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  3. 1-Sometimes. When the kids were little I didn't enjoy it as much as some of them had narrow tastes and making multiple dishes to accommodate them sometimes was a PITA. As I have gotten older I only enjoy cooking if it is something special I am making. But the bigger issue is that I enjoy EATING GOOD FOOD, and no one else here will cook mostly so I have to cook. lol
    2-I don't bake often anymore but I use to be a bread making demon.
    3-There are dishes I have cooked so often I don't need a recipe anymore and usually I tinker with it too. I can replicate some dishes just from tasting them.
    4-With baking it is necessary to follow the formula/recipe. Baking is science. If you try to improvise you will be sorely disappointed.
    5-My mother was a natural Southern cook who taught me a lot. Cooking was her passion. My father was a very narrow eater and I know it frustrated her as a married woman. In later life after her divorce she blossomed into her passion. I have read and studied since leaving home as a teen how to cook/bake better. It has helped with my kitchen experimenting that I married a person who will eat almost everything(because his mother was such an awful cook). lolz

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  4. 1) I enjoy cooking.
    2) I love to bake
    3) Wing it
    4) Usually recipe but am winging it more and more.
    5) My mom.

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  5. 1: I LOVE to cook. LoveLoveLove it.
    2: I don't bake often; Carlos is the MasterBaker™ in our house.
    3: Sometimes yes--when I'm doing something new--but more often than not I just do my own rendition.
    4: If I bake, I always follow a recipe; I heard once that "Cooking is an art, but baking is a science," and I am no good at science without instructions.
    5: My mom, and I have several friends who are professional chefs.

    ReplyDelete
  6. 1: Do you like to cook? yes
    2: Do you like to bake (pastries, cookies, cakes)? no
    3: When cooking do you follow a recipe or wing it? recipe
    4: When baking, do you follow a recipe or wing it? recipe
    5: How did you learn to cook and or bake? trial and error

    ReplyDelete