Feeling Stuck

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Permalink Reply by Laurie on November 19, 2009 at 7:35pm

Penelope, I'm a retired pastry chef and when I watched Top Chef last night I didn't know half of what they were talking about. LOL! I get tired of all the celebrity stuff too. It seems like all they know how to cook is fast cooking expensive cuts. They have to have things that cook fast on the line at the restaurant. My food these days is extremely simple and fresh. If there are 15 ingredients forget about it.....I think if you want to try "fine" things or the "newest" then great. I just wish they wouldn't try to make others feel intimidated when they do it. Just ignore them and enjoy your cooking and eating again!!!!!

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Permalink Reply by Kathryn on November 20, 2009 at 7:12am

Im a big fan of slow cookers. Just throw everything in and turn on the switch. When you come at night it is all ready and steaming hot.

I enjoy grated carrot as a side dish and a bowl of grated beetroot in yogurt. Cook what taste good to you and enjoy.

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Permalink Reply by Letti on November 20, 2009 at 5:35pm

Penelope, I used to enjoy watching the cooking shows ten years ago. I do not watch them any more. Turn of your TV and enjoy your cooking again. I grow lots of herbs and I enjoy adding them to whatever I am cooking. I love preparing simple and creative meals. Instead of watching the tubes, I love reading the gardening blogs and experiment with the recipes is find on the blogs. Check out 'One Green Generation'.

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Permalink Reply by Martha Hill on November 22, 2009 at 5:07pm

You are forgetting one thing !! The person who will be eating the food you prepare !! Yourself !!! If it pleases you,,,I wouldn`t worry about anything else !! Cooking should be an adventure !! I wouldn`t make a comparison unless you have tasted the TV Chefs food !! Chances are yours is better by far !!

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Permalink Reply by Maya on November 23, 2009 at 10:36am

Oi! Penelope! The cooking shows are designed to make people who've grown up eating processed foods and without a Fannie Farmer in the house want to go to a restaurant and be demanding, or buy expensive, exotic ingredients that they'll mostly never figure out how to use. They'll still order take-out to reheat in their state-of-the-art, custom, granite-and-stainless kitchens.

When I moved back to the great white north after a decade or so gallivanting in warmer places, a friend thought it would be fun to go to a cross-country ski center for the day. I'd grown up bashing my way through the woods on skis, but now needed to (a) rent equipment and (b) pay for using the center's groomed trails. The nice young woman asked me what kind of equipment I wanted to rent. There were now choices: classic, skate, or backcountry skis. I had no clue how to proceed. Turns out what I'd always done (for free on old logging roads and golf courses) was now called 'backcountry.' Oh, and did I want lessons? Lessons?! It's kind of like walking, isn't it?

In the age of too much information, people find it necessary to classify, categorize, and have vocabulary for every detail of every thought and action. There's no such thing as intuition anymore. If they're not paying for specialized equipment, ingredients, and a certificate-earning series of lessons, they somehow don't feel they can do it at all. That's not you. You just go now and throw something wholesome and delicious in a pot. You know what you're doing, and don't let anyone tell you any different. (FYI: In the just desserts department, two of my children are now competitive Nordic skiers. Yup, skate and classic.)

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Permalink Reply by david e kelley on November 23, 2009 at 7:00pm

The cooking shows are entertaining, but that's all. Some of my favorite recipes started with notes handed down from family. They're still as good as ever. James Beard, Joy of Cooking, and Professional Chefs Manural are good references. I have over 100 cookbooks, but rarely follow a recipe any more. George Herter, of an illustrious family best known for mail order outdoor sports products, published some remarkable cooking manuals. They were full of interesting, historical stories about the origins of recipes. I'm sure they are long out of print, but I never had a bad meal, learned a lot about cooking techniques, plus the stories were remarkable in these inexpensive volumes. Today I rarely use a written recipe, and use locally grown food, when available (especially home grown in my kitchen garden). Cook what you enjoy; simple is the best, experiment with herbs and spices so that you can control the taste, and use organic products if available.
I'll never forget a Cajun lass in south Louisiana telling me " Bring whatever you have and I'll make it taste good." She did! By the way, before marriage the only way to get to their house was by pirough.
Stay natural,
David

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Permalink Reply by Martha Hill on November 25, 2009 at 1:00pm

South Louisiana !! Now those people know how to cook !!

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Permalink Reply by Maggie on November 25, 2009 at 3:11pm

The problem with professional cooks is that they have to add ingredients to foods to make them taste good.
The opposite is true for organic home produce, it tastes so good you do not have to add anything to it, good home grown produce is delicious.
I guess it is hard for you because you have such cold winters. Here in Adelaide we can grow food all year. I have a small organic cafe near where I live, Hayden grows a lot of the food he uses in the cafe, at the moment he is not cooking in his shop because he is gardening, planting for summer.
I wish you could stop by for lunch Penelope, maybe one day!

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Permalink Reply by Meghan Rosenbaum on November 28, 2009 at 10:39am

I have found myself starting to over-analyze the foods I use, in terms of their "organicness" or "sustainability". Wondering whether to buy the organic potatoes (or whatever) from 800 miles away, or the non-organic from 50 miles away can really suck all the enjoyment out of cooking and eating. Has anyone else noticed this in their lives?

I watch plenty of cooking shows, but use them more for inspiration than instruction. A lot of chefs on Food Network are starting to, or have always, used very fresh, locally produced food in their recipes. Some of them still use ingredients that I could never get where I live, such as fresh scallops, but I still watch the flavor combinations or techniques that they use. All chefs do things a little bit different, and so should you! Use what you watch and read as something to build on, and if you like something - stick with it!

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Permalink Reply by Cielce on November 30, 2009 at 11:53am

I've found the same happening in my mind too. Always looking at the place veggies or fruit is from in the grocery store, and if it's stuff that can be grown local but is out of season I generally avoid it, or if it's in season I'll get it from the farmers market. Although I have to say I don't mind getting up early on a saturday for a trip to the farmers market, I get insperation for meal ideas from all the veggies I see, and food network helps me there too, I've learned to cook with cumin and corriander from some of the celebrity chefs :D lol

There are a few that are all about fresh, local, hand made food. I love watching chef at home, or chef abroad with Micheal Smith, but maybe I'm a bit biased because he's canadian :D I also like Jamie Olivers show Jamie at home, because it features his garden (w gardener) and the meals he can produce from it. I get insperation from that on what to plant, if I start drooling over the meal idea :D lol

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Permalink Reply by Laurie on November 30, 2009 at 6:32pm

I loved Jamie Oliver's show too. I wish there was a show with his gardener!!! In fact I wrote HGTV (owned by the same people as food network) and told them so. Would like to have the outdoor oven.

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Permalink Reply by Penelope on December 1, 2009 at 6:41am

I don't get the food channel, only free TV, so the cooking shows I watch at home are on PBS -- Lidia's Italy, the Scandinavian chefs who cook outdoors, Mario Batali and Mark Bittman cruising through Spain with Gwyneth Paltrow and a Spanish actress Claudia ??? Some of these are fun to watch, but it makes me wonder about the decadance of it all -- like Roman orgies -- I think about all the horrors going on in the world, while these characters flitter about fussing over the delicacy of a clam or spinach leaf. I'm getting cranky in my old age . . .

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