Cooking for One
Recipes and cooking have been a recurring topic of conversation in my life this week. Over coffee with some friends this one morning, we started talking about cooking. And I simply stated that I hadn't been to the grocery store in three weeks. They couldn't believe this. Well, let me tell you folks out there that are married if you are single and you cook something for yourself, you better like it because you will eat it at least three times. I am not kidding. My grandmother told me how to make a ham and egg pie, I love those. But I have to eat it at least four times in order to eat most of it or my money has gone down the drain. See the problem here?
Well they started telling me that it is relaxing to them to read cook books. This kind of perplexed me. I learned to cook from my dad, who learned to cook from his mom and dad. These people are excellent cooks. One of my cousins once commented that my dad could make dog shit taste good. She kind of has a point. He knows how to cook! But he does not have any of his recipes written down, and I have never seen him follow a recipe to the tee. In fact when I first went to college and my friends would cook things I was baffled that they would follow the recipe without adding a little of this or that. I thought EVERYONE knew you had to just add a little of this and a little of that to anything you cook. But I guess not.
And the other thing is most of dad's recipes came from his father, who learned to cook in the Army. When he came home from the war he had five children, I consider this a small army in and of itself. Anyway, he only knew how to cook on a large scale, therefore my father usually cooks on a large scale, therefore I only know how to cook on a large scale. I guess if there were actually a recipe written down somewhere I could half it, but there isn't. This adds to the fact that I rarely cook because there are just some things you can't eat more than once in a week.
So mother called and informed me that one of my aunt's is putting together a family recipe book. We are all suppossed to contribute our favorite recipes and a funny little story with it. I thought this was funny, not because I am not going to enjoy the book, but because I know my family. They all have their little "secret ingredients" to every recipe. They might tell you how to make it, but they tend to leave out THE secret ingrediant. Okay, maybe I am just talking about my dad, but I suspect there are others!
Side note - I finally told my dad about my blog tonight. I read him two of my posts. After the first one he said "you should be a writer, like Fannie Flagg." (Dad and I love to watch the old Match Games on the Game Show Network, and Fannie Flagg is usually on the panel. He was just trying to be funny.) But I read him my post about why I am still single. He did not pick up on the fact that I had been to Hooters. But after I told him, he said "YOU WENT TO HOOTERS! Katie, that is NOT the place to meet a guy." My dad has never commented on me dating anyone and has never really asked about where I might have met anyone, so I thought this was really funny!
But just in case any of you are wondering, I have perfected some of my own recipes. I think I am going to request my own chapter: "How To Cook For One." I am not sure how well this will be received. There are 11 cousins in my family. I am 10 in that line, and 1-9 are all married with children. There are 23 great-grandchildren with one on the way. Every time my grandmother tells me that the Bible says to be fruitful and multiply I tell her she has taken care of that for both of us, and I get a pass. So you see I am not sure my chapter will be applicable to the family, but I am still lobbying for it!
Well they started telling me that it is relaxing to them to read cook books. This kind of perplexed me. I learned to cook from my dad, who learned to cook from his mom and dad. These people are excellent cooks. One of my cousins once commented that my dad could make dog shit taste good. She kind of has a point. He knows how to cook! But he does not have any of his recipes written down, and I have never seen him follow a recipe to the tee. In fact when I first went to college and my friends would cook things I was baffled that they would follow the recipe without adding a little of this or that. I thought EVERYONE knew you had to just add a little of this and a little of that to anything you cook. But I guess not.
And the other thing is most of dad's recipes came from his father, who learned to cook in the Army. When he came home from the war he had five children, I consider this a small army in and of itself. Anyway, he only knew how to cook on a large scale, therefore my father usually cooks on a large scale, therefore I only know how to cook on a large scale. I guess if there were actually a recipe written down somewhere I could half it, but there isn't. This adds to the fact that I rarely cook because there are just some things you can't eat more than once in a week.
So mother called and informed me that one of my aunt's is putting together a family recipe book. We are all suppossed to contribute our favorite recipes and a funny little story with it. I thought this was funny, not because I am not going to enjoy the book, but because I know my family. They all have their little "secret ingredients" to every recipe. They might tell you how to make it, but they tend to leave out THE secret ingrediant. Okay, maybe I am just talking about my dad, but I suspect there are others!
Side note - I finally told my dad about my blog tonight. I read him two of my posts. After the first one he said "you should be a writer, like Fannie Flagg." (Dad and I love to watch the old Match Games on the Game Show Network, and Fannie Flagg is usually on the panel. He was just trying to be funny.) But I read him my post about why I am still single. He did not pick up on the fact that I had been to Hooters. But after I told him, he said "YOU WENT TO HOOTERS! Katie, that is NOT the place to meet a guy." My dad has never commented on me dating anyone and has never really asked about where I might have met anyone, so I thought this was really funny!
But just in case any of you are wondering, I have perfected some of my own recipes. I think I am going to request my own chapter: "How To Cook For One." I am not sure how well this will be received. There are 11 cousins in my family. I am 10 in that line, and 1-9 are all married with children. There are 23 great-grandchildren with one on the way. Every time my grandmother tells me that the Bible says to be fruitful and multiply I tell her she has taken care of that for both of us, and I get a pass. So you see I am not sure my chapter will be applicable to the family, but I am still lobbying for it!
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