SED 2: Cooking

[lightofdaye]

The folks went to a dance tonight, that has food. So I was left to make my own tea. This means SED day 2 is devoted to my complete lack of culinary skills. Like thinking about how much ingredients will be needed before cooking. Or managing multiple hobbs/ the grill at once. Or not switched the bottom oven on as well as the top and roasting a couple of empty oven trays.

I was attempting welsh rabbit. Which is like fancy cheese on toast. melted butter, cornflower, bit of milk lots of cheese. Simply right? I have no figured the nack of adding flour to melted butter and it not ending up lumpy.

still that much cheese makes anything edible in my opinion.

Any cooking stories f-list? Greatest successes? Silliest failures?

Comments

[tamlane.livejournal.com]

There is nothing simple about cheese sauce. We get by (thank god for tacos), but cooking is certainly not my forte. Except breakfast! I love to cook breakfast.

Your mention of roasting oven trays reminds me of a cooking story... Once my cousin was baking chocolate chip cookies, and he left a plastic container full of sugar on a stove burner. Talk about a mess!

[lightofdaye]

oooh. What are cooked breakfasts even like in america? I'm guess not like a full english because then that wouldn't be called that...

ha! Oh god. Instant caramel?

[tamlane.livejournal.com]

God no, *no one* does breakfast like you Brits! But here's a random pic from the internets of my favorite type of breakfast to cook. Eggs in a blanket and bacon, yummy!! Add a few fresh orange wedges and some chai spice tea, and I'm in heaven.

Ha! You got it.

[nutmeg-44.livejournal.com]

I have moderate cooking skills. I would call myself proficient. I basically wouldn't starve but I'm no great chef. I learned by trying to cook my favourite foods.

I think that would be a good way for you to learn. Make a list of your favourite foods and find simple recipes online for them (short prep time, small ingredients list etc) then just practice. That is literally the only way to get better. There will be lots of burned food and busted pots and pans in the process but when you finally get it, it's amazing. And never discount getting help from the store (canned sauces, pre-made pie crusts etc). They really help.

Funny story? I remember one summer, me, my step-sister and a 'cousin' were home during the day. I was about 18 and I was reheating some pasta+sauce that we had made the night before. Not sure why I didn't take the easy (microwave) way out but I was reheating on the stove. My tiny attention span completely forgot that it was there and it started to burn. That still didn't jog my memory and I remember all of us were making snide comments about the neighbours not being able to cook and burning things etc. Then I remembered I was hungry, went into the kitchen and saw the completely black pot on the stove... It was so funny and so shaming. Still my favourite cooking fail story.

[lightofdaye]

Thanks for the advice. Online recipes are how i learned my welsh rabbit. Though they sometimes come with incomprehensible amercian measurements :P like a cup. How much is a cup? :P

Ha!Whoops! I've burnt things to a crips before! Most often when accidently setting a microwave oven to microwave instead of oven when it had metal in. Oops.

[nutmeg-44.livejournal.com]

I assume you would prefer the measurements in metric (which I am terrible at) so in that case just find measurement conversions like this one online. Just google and convert. It won't be that bad.

I've learned my lesson after that pasta incident but it is still a learning process. My tiny attention span gets the better of me.

[leigh-adams.livejournal.com]

The key to making sure your cheese sauce isn't lumpy is a whisk. You basically have to constantly whisk the entire time you add the milk while you're forming the roux, else it winds up lumpy. I've never made it, but I've been wanting to try this recipe for Welsh rabbit.

Oh gosh. If I try to start thinking of all my cooking stories, I'll never stop typing. I love cooking, and sharing recipes!

[lightofdaye]

Thanks for the advice. :) I asked my mum when she got back in it and sound like at least part of my problem was not taking it off the head when adding flour/milk.

Well, there's material for your SED then! :D