You know those lists of things you should have taught your kid by the time they're eighteen? Things like how to change oil, balance a check book, etc.? I'm in a panic realizing I only have one year left to get Ingrid's list checked off, and though Ingrid bakes a killer cake or batch of cookies, I haven't really taught her how to cook.
Where do I start? What are five dishes you need to know before you have to start feeding yourself like a big girl? I was thinking Marinara, as that was the first thing I really learned to do on my own (besides cookies, toast, and scrambled eggs.) But what else?
1 day ago
12 comments:
Oh my gosh Lara! I'll come there and take care of you. And we won't cook anything.
Oh, and I would say white sauce and lentil soup.
Vinaigrette.
How to properly stir fry.
Casserole (I feel this is a general enough field that it could be taught in one fell swoop).
Am I technically allowed to contribute, though, as an alumnus (ni? na?) of the Asplund Kitchen?
How about preparing meat? I remember when I was starting out, I struggled with knowing when my chicken was properly cooked. Nothing worse than dry/overdone chicken, except maybe pink/salmonella-ish chicken. It's also a different process with different kinds of meat/fish.
How to make pot roast and roasted chicken. And maybe how to make minestrone (or some other good soup) in the winter. Ooooh, and how to make bread.
Those are all things that intimidated me when I first started cooking.
This is difficult: I started cooking meals well before I left home for school, even before I graduated from hs, and my father was my food consultant until he died (I was 32). I just called him, in days when telephone was expensive. My first Thanksgiving away from home was duck a l'orange.
With Robin, I sent him mid first or second year with a bunch of photocopies and a couple of cookbooks, but now he's asking for repeats (he's also "collecting his cooking equipment again"--what does this really mean? don't think I want to know). Since I lost some cookbooks in a cross country grad school move, I forgive, but I'm now scanning. Should this be a new blog? (I still think I'll do a cookbook of family stuff. Not this year, since I'm scanning family photos.) Are there cooking classes (inexpensive ones) like PCC has? Robin liked that. I think he liked the drama of presentation.
The fact that Ingrid can bake a cake puts her way ahead. Regular cooking is easy, especially when motivated by hunger. I suggest you use the Freire teaching method.
What is this Freire method of which you speak? I want details.
I forgot to say no meat--Ingy's a long-standing vegetarian (sigh.)
Though she will eat shell fish, her philosophy being "of the phylum chordata, i shall have nada."
Is she a lacto-ovo vegetarian? If so, maybe teach her to make quiche. I was a vegetarian for ten years, but I would occasionally eat dairy and egg products. Nothing beats a good quiche! And now I'm craving quiche with spinach and artichoke hearts. (I started eating meat again when I was pregnant with my first child -- I don't know why, but I craved it.)
By the way, I gave you a shout-out on my blog last night. :-)
soup--definitely. i was in graduate school and still did not know about stock and about sauteeing the vegetables before hand. And garlic. I remember making soup by just throwing some chopped veggies in water and then didn't understand why it tasted so bad. I was an idiot, though, unlike Ingy.
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