Cooking Baking Eating

Sometimes there are things that you do on a day to day basis that seem so natural, so obvious, that sometimes it escapes you that others might not know something that you think is… Well obvious.

One of them was brought to my attention some time ago when I went to a new-ish friend’s house for dinner. We had made them tacos one night and they were returning the favor, having a nice spread of fixin’s for making our own tacos. You really can’t go wrong with having a Make-It-Your-Self taco bar. But there was one problem. They were trying to use corn tortillas, but they didn’t cook them first.

Yeah, you actually have to cook the tortillas to get them to be that soft and pliable texture so you can fold them around your favorite food. They kept going on about how messy and unreliable they were so they just switched back to their flour tortillas (cold out the package also). I didn’t have the courage to bring up the fact that you actually had to warm or cook them before they were usable, the fear of sounding like I was preaching or being snide wouldn’t let me do it. I liked them, I didn’t want them to start hating me so soon in our new friendship.

It didn’t strike me until much later that maybe they just didn’t know. Not everyone is an obsessive-must-know-everything person and researches until they find the answer. Plus I just grew up with having a taco night with my parents, using corn tortillas never flour. Maybe they just didn’t know you had to cook them.

So maybe others don’t know either? That’s pretty much what’s prompting me in this one. Maybe they just didn’t know. So here we go.

Its easy!
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Over the last few weeks I went on a tomato binge. Strange sounding, but since I don’t drink, I tend to binge on weird things. Or maybe I should just refer to them as a random craving. A craving that lasts for weeks or months.

I first remember the cravings starting with cheese cake. I had to have cheese cake multiple times a week. Then it was anything in a tortilla. There were a few others in there but lately it was tomatoes. Not just any tomatoes, but cherry or grape tomatoes. Small tart yet sweet little tomato treats. Not often do you hear people waxing poetic over tomatoes, huh? Yeah I’m a freak.

But what do you do when you break down and buy the huge container from the warehouse retailer? There are only so many tomatoes that you can eat in a day before you realize that the basis of your snacks at work are tomatoes. You also get some funny looks from coworkers.

You can dry them of course!

I seem to be having this new obsession with my dehydrator. I feel like I’m having a naughty affair behind the backs of my fresh tomato’s… Do they have backs?

I had never tried drying tomatoes before, mostly just making fruit leathers from applesauce or making apple chips. The tomatoes were looking a little on the over ripe side, since there are only so many tomatoes you eat before you get a little burned out. So I decided to try something new. Cut them in half and stuck them cut side up in the dehydrator.

It really isn’t a quick process, but in the end I think it’s better than buying them prepacked in olive oil and other preservatives in the grocery store. I will have to try making some sauces and pastas from these little babies soon. But they are quite tasty, dried and plain out of the bag.

Now if only I could get rid of this random obsession with mustard…

I love to cook with citrus. Lemons and limes tend to make it into at least half of my dishes, more with lemon than lime but that could change.

So what do you do when you get a hankering for something with a hint of lemon? I mean really, I do love having lemons sitting out on the counter. But they will rot if you don’t get to all the cooking that you really want to during the week and they can end up getting thrown away.

So what does one do when faced with a large bag of lemons (or limes in this case) but want to make sure that using them will be easy in the future as well as getting your money’s worth in the long run?

By killing them of course.

Delicious death!
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One of my favorite things to make lately is bread. Unfortunately bread takes a fair amount of kneading to create the right texture for baking. To me this is unfortunate because of a wrist injury that acts up whenever I try to knead bread dough by hand.

I really don’t think you can knead by “hand” without using your wrist. But quite a thought huh?

So in order to make my bread, I have been using a bread machine to mix the dough or even my KitchenAid mixer with the dough hook attached.

The texture is great and I haven’t really noticed a difference between using the machines and doing it by hand. I’ve seen the recipes for the no knead breads but have yet to try them. With my wrist issues it might be the next thing I should start looking into.

The one nice thing about using a bread machine for kneading is that it will also do a rise for you as well. Not really needing to find a warm place to stash your dough in while it rises.

What do you think? Convenience vs. tradition?

For the longest time I always bought the pre-shredded cheese at the market. It was always just more convenient and just easier.

But lately I have started buying it in blocks and shredding it as needed. I find that I have a bit more longevity to the cheese as well as it takes up a little less room in the fridge. It is really not that hard to shred some cheese on a whim and use it right when I need it.

I also like the fact that I can create my own cheese blends for cooking. A little Havarti, Cheddar, Parmesan… Its almost like making your own spice blend.

I think I am just in love with cheese. I never really was before, but now that I’m trying more types of food and different recipes my world in the kitchen has gotten much bigger. New favorite? Baked Mac and Cheese.

Sometimes I wonder why people look at me and say that they can’t cook. Inside I really think it’s a lie. It’s not that they can’t cook, but they are just afraid.

I don’t mean afraid of the spatula running around and biting them, but afraid of failure and that what they might make will taste badly. True you can burn things, add the wrong thing, or even just pick a bad recipe, but in reality there is no person who cannot cook. There is only that fear of failure (or sometimes poison).

I grew up in a home where, because of health reasons for a family member, the only spice we seemed to have was salt, and maybe a little Lawry’s seasoning salt. I never grew up with spices, yet now I think my spice shelf is pretty filled with spices. It’s never too late to start learning what you love in food. The occasional disaster shouldn’t stop you either, just make you realize what you did wrong and move on.

If someone is seriously thinking about cooking and learning more things, they need to do two important things.

1. Read. By reading cook books, blogs, recipes, or just how-to’s they can learn just about anything. Even how to cook. This is one of the main ways I learned what I have so far about cooking. I love watching the food channel and seeing how they make things, then incorporating them into my life as well.
2. DO! If it’s something you have never done before, there is a pretty good chance that you could mess up. So pick something that is similar to what you already make and go for it. If you mess up, tell them it’s supposed to taste that way.

One way to start slowly becoming more of a cook is to experiment with spices. Pick a new spice and start thinking of new ways to use it. Look up online recipes involving that spice to give you ideas.

One book that I think is invaluable is the Joy Of Cooking. I think it chronicles just about EVERYTHING about cooking. It has so many different types of food and just about every meal.

Everyone will make a mistake with cooking, but it’s really not as hard as it seems. Even if it’s just making a more creative grilled cheese, it is still cooking.

Learning takes time, don’t worry. We’re right there with you.

You know what I really hate? When you go to all the trouble of baking something wonderful and your food sticks to the pan or has a chemically taste to it because of baking spray.

I grew up with my mother using the old fashioned way of making pans non stick, butter and flour. Now granted my mother isn’t the best cook and extra brown was considered done sometimes, but she knew a few tricks to getting her box mix cakes from the pans.

Over the years I’ve had to do my own experimentation on what works for making my quick breads, yeast breast and cakes not stick to their pans.
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