You Forgot To Mention, Top Gun, I Ain't Glass

[silver_tiamat]

Okay. I've now been cooking for two and a half hours. @_@ Well, "cooking" isn't exactly the right word. And that isn't all I've done all morning.

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[silver_tiamat]

One of them was taken about a year ago in Florida, and the other around...two years ago in my apartment in Irvine. *I* always feel that I look prettier in my pictures than I do in real life, but EVERYONE else feels the opposite. I guess maybe I should say that I think I look prettier in pictures than I do in the mirror. =/

Hmm...this would be where I tell you all my amazing cooking tricks and tips! ...except that I don't really have it down to a science I can explain. I'm one of those cooking folk who annoy non-cooking folk because I don't measure things unless I'm following a recipe (and even THEN...), so I say "some paprika" or "some basil" and people will ask, well, about how much? And I'll shrug and say "Enough that I'll like it, but not too much to put off Brian." XD Teaspoon? Tablespoon? Spoon? XD

Like yesteday I used a dash of soy sauce (you have to be careful using it in a marinade because the salt in it (even the low-salt variety) can dry out the chicken in a way you don't want), about four-five times more mirin than the soy sauce for the base. Then I added a bit of paprika, some dried basil flakes, a dash of tumeric and a little more than a dash of corriander. Then I rubbed the chicken through the plastic baggy I had it in, and made sure that the spices had fairly evenly distributed (this is why I like mirin for marinades besides the flavor, it seems to carry the spices around well and add just the right amount of splippery-ness). I let it sit for ~5 hours or so and cooked it with it's juices on med-heat, turning it to high for the last bit before turning off the heat. Tada! It was very delicious.

I add my miso to things when I would normally add salt. It's naturally salty, and it adds an extra bit of flavor. =D

o.o I don't think I've actually ever really cut myself with a knife I was using for cooking. I have gotten burned by BUMPING a pan, but I avoid touching a pan deliberately once I've turned the heat on. But...this may come from a lifestyle in which I have at one point or another done real serious harm to myself and I know better to inflict it twice. Such as, er, for example, accidentally thrusting a wooden arrow through the back of my knee an inch below my knee (and then, uh, continuing to run with it in my leg because I was making a quick gettaway and it was faster to just leave it in instead of stopping to take it out...), and giving myself a second-degree burn (and a massive scar) on my leg by accidentally dropping a burning hot iron on myself (well, I bumped the ironing board it was on, and it tipped over). I guess I've accumulated enough scars in other places that I'd like to keep the count down of those from the kitchen. XDD

[miss_ljv]

I hate mirrors!!! They lie. It's like a scale - one will tell you one thing, and the next will tell you another.

I don't mind non-measurements, I just like an idea. I'm pretty flexible in recipes in terms of substitutions and stuff, so I try to also be okay with not knowing the exact amount of something. I just really don't know what tastes good herb-wise, or how much is good (a pinch vs a tbsp, etc.) But thanks! I'm not sure if we have corriander, but I think we have everything else :D
And thanks for the miso tip - yet another thing I just don't think of!

I'm just careless in the kitchen, or impatient, or I stick my hands in a hot pan to touch food, move it, or otherwise put my hand in an unsafe and precarious situation >_<

[silver_tiamat]

I know. They're only good for telling you if your outfit matches or if your hair is falling in the way it's supposed to. Other than that, give you a vague idea of what you look like. Because I can look fine in the mirror, take a picture and go: ohmygod no, I don't look that UGLY. D= Or vice versa.

Mmm, yeah, my mom loves to cook. We had homecooked meals about 98% of the time growing up, so I've seen her cook about a gazillion times. It's sort of like watching someone drive. Even if you don't know everything that's going on (like, exactly how much pressure you need to put on the gas pedal), you're picking up so much just by being there. So, when I actually started cooking for myself, I realzied I already knew a lot, despite the fact that I hadn't actually been cooking for most of my life. =/

You could use a teeny bit of curry powder instead--tumeric and corriander are part of what makes curry taste like curry, and are very prevalent in India cooking. I guess one way to learn about spices is to look them up by who uses what the most, ie: Japanese use sugar and salt based spices for almost everything (soy sauce, mirin, sake, salt, and sugar), French use the sweet spices like marjoram, bay, and basil, Italian use the savory herbs like oregano, pepper, etc. You see what I'm getting at.

The more you know about the herbs, the more you can start thinking, "Well, okay, I'm making something that's spicy, and I want to add a dash of sweet to it. I know that the Thai use basil and cilantro to add a different dimension to their spicy sauces, so how about..." or "This is turning out bland, but I don't want to overflavor it since I have other dishes that have delicate flavors (like, say, fish), so why don't I take a page out of the Japanese book and just add a bit of mirin, and a dash of soy, and to round out the flavor why not a bit of such-and-such herb."

Maybe I'm just paranoid with my hands. I can't imagine what I'd do without them. D= I couldn't draw, or paint, or type, or HOLD BOOKS, or EVERY LEARN TO PLAY THE VIOLIN. Zomg. I really can't lose my hands. Or my sight. Or my hearing. T.T OH NO! BUT I CAN'T LOSE MY LEGS EITHER! Wow. I really have to be careful with all my body parts and senses (except smell). o.o