Learning to Cook

I don’t enjoy being in the kitchen.  I don’t like cooking.  Ok, I hate cooking.  I don’t have a knack for it, I’m too forgetful.  Cookies get burnt.  Dinner gets burnt.  I get burnt.  It’s no good.

My husband knew I was no cook when he married me.  He could cook and that was ok.  However, when we had my daughter and I became a stay at home Mama, I had to take up the household duties and that included cooking.  In the beginning I stuck with easy no-fail dishes, spaghetti, chili, meatloaf, pancakes.  We did ok.  

This may not look like much, but it's delicious cola carnitas.  Yummy!

FYI, this was before Pinterest and Instagram and Facebook.  I didn’t have easy access to  online tutorials, like Tasty.  Just me and a few cookbooks.  I began to venture out. My corn and pork stew was pretty good.  I learned to roast a chicken.  Hubs was wonderful.  No matter how tasteless, no matter how burned he ate what I made.  No complaints.  I complained.

I learned how to make enchiladas.  Hubs rejoiced.  Delicious enchiladas.  I found my Gramma’s biscuit recipe and mastered that!  I make fantastic biscuits.  I got adventurous and made stir-fry.  Any meat, any vegetables and healthy.  With a few basics, I developed a serviceable repertoire of meals for my family.  Fortunately, my girls had very broad palettes and ate many different kinds of food (then, not now).  They love broccoli. They loved meat (not now). I was getting better.

Every year when fall rolls in, when the girls go back to school and the days get cooler I get inspired to try to recipes to add into my ever-expanding repertoire of meals.  I find new recipes, excitedly brown and sauté and roast!  Most every recipe I try will be soundly knocked back by at least two members of my crew.  It’s irritating, it’s frustrating, it’s tiring.  However, there is usually at least one new recipe that everyone will like.  My corn and black bean salad is a favorite, as are the one pot chicken and vege roast and green chile pork tacos.  Rollatini of sole not so much.  It’s all trial and error.  Outta ten recipes your family might like two.  Might.   

And now, with Pinterest, Facebook and Instagram in play, finding new recipes is easy.  So many things look yummy!  I found a Tasty recipe for garlic chicken crazy bread.  It looked so easy and delicious.  It was so easy.  No one like it, not even me!  We do love the sausage, fennel and chard minestrone.  Add a loaf of beer bread and your meal is complete. 

No one can resist my butter-roasted salmon with asparagus and herbed couscous!

I’ve been married for 15 years – glorious years!  Married with children for 14.  I still don’t like to cook.  (When I win Powerball I’m hiring a personal chef.)  Nevertheless, in those years I’ve improved my skills.  I’m a pretty good cook (you should try my butter roasted salmon).  I still use my old standbys, spaghetti and pancakes when I’m tired.  That’s ok.  I’ve even developed a greater interest in being in the kitchen, in cooking.  Who knew!