The strange wanderings of my dubious thoughts

[anahata56]

I'm finding it more and more difficult lately to pick a subject and stick with it. But I do have random bursts of thoughts in my head that tend to stick there and not go away, which influences the way I'm looking at life at any given moment. So while seemingly random, these thoughts may be more significant than they appear to be

Comments

[ladyqkat]

Can anyone please tell me why it's the recipe's "fault" when someone makes a recipe knowing full well that they don't care for one of the main ingredients?

Heh. There are certain ingredients I don't care for either because of texture (bell peppers and legumes) or allergies (tree nuts). On dishes that call for either one of them I will either omit the 'offending' ingredient or cut the pieces large enough to remove from my portion as I eat it.

On some dishes calling for bell peppers they require the ingredient for the flavor to be right. I can deal with that. When they are added for color, I'll make substitutions - carrots will work as I also don't care for a heavy tomato accent either

[anahata56]

There is probably nothing that I think is more beautiful than a tall, perfectly white coconut cake. I think that look is just stunning.

However, I will never make one because I don't care for coconut.

And because I have a lick of sense.

There are very few things in this world that I don't like--but I know what I don't like, and I don't cook things that include them if they are the main ingredient.

It just blows me away when I read these people writing about cooking the beautiful pork loin and criticising the recipe because they don't like pork.

[ladyqkat]

Okay, that is just plain ignorant. Do they think the flavor/texture/ingredient will magically transform itself into something they do like?

I am with you on the coconut thing. It looks so very pretty, but I will gag if I try to eat it. I adore the look of German Chocolate Cake, but I will never, ever taste one because I don't want to trigger my gag reflex.

But, yeah, if you have issues with a main ingredient, don't make the dish. Although, even though allergies prevent me from trying it, I am told I make a mean pecan pie. I will do a dish for someone special and make something else for myself if it has something in the main dish I can't/won't eat. That is only sensable.

[anahata56]

"Do they think the flavor/texture/ingredient will magically transform itself into something they do like?"

I really think so. I really think that they're that silly.

And to be honest, I think I can understand the impulse, because I do think that beautiful coconut cake is something I could eat with my eyes all day long. And I'd probably even enjoy the taste of it, because I do like the taste of coconut, and quite enjoy it in coconut milk or dishes where the coconut is very, very finely minced.

But I just cannot handle the feel of it when it's all beautifully shaggy like that.

And I can't expect that this will change about my palate just because Paula Deen's coconut cake is so damned beautiful.

And even more than that, I can't bring myself to say that Paula Deen is a lousy cook because she made a perfect cake, but one that I just somehow can't manage to eat.

THAT'S what pisses me off--that there is something somehow wrong with the dish, deserving of only one or two stars, because the chef had the temerity to cook with an

[wolfette]

Can anyone please tell me why anyone would take a dish out of the oven and serve it if it didn't appear to be done?

"I gave it exactly the time it said on the instructions" - I have this conversation with my beloved a lot. He can't get his head around the idea that "all times are approximate" that is usually also printed on the instructions. (the microwave is my friend, when he's undercooked dinner again)

[anahata56]

It's crazy.

I have a very good oven, but I know that I have to adjust the cooking times from time to time, and sometimes it has nothing to do with the oven at all, but the ambient temperature and humidity. So one always has to cook "until it looks right", most of the time.

There is no way that I would put an undercooked dish on my table with the caveat, "I cooked it just as long as the recipe said."

While I'm sure that your husband (and a lot of husbands, actually) would miss the subtlety of this because they are trying very hard to do it correctly, I somehow find it difficult to get my head around the idea that someone interested enough in cooking to actually watch the Food Network and to try the recipes they see on TV would be so completely inept as to not be able to adjust to the wide variety of factors involved in every cooking experience.

And yeah, I know that there are novice cooks out there--but I doubt sincerely that there are novice eaters, so wouldn't one think that instinct would compel them to cook it until it looked

[wolfette]

Problem with hubby is that he isn't a novice, exactly - he's been doing this for years. It's just that he seems to think that cooking should be science, where thee and me know that it's more like an art.

And despite numerous pleadings, he will insist on using the wrong cookware - my good grill pan in the oven as a roasting dish, my shallow cake dish with my wire cooling tray as a grill pan to cook bacon, for example (in both cases the dishes he's using are too small for the job, so he has to cram things in - so they're even less likely to cook properly). dishtowels left in a screwed up ball on the counter top instead of hung on the hook. sauce bottles, spice jars, etc, with their tops off (and I'm lucky if I can find said top - sometimes he even throws them away)(he throws the oddest things away - about half the forks in my cutlery set I got as a wedding present went into the bin when he cleared the plates after dinner)

And when I want put things put away in the right place in the cupboards, I've "got that OCD thing"

[anahata56]

Jobe used to accuse me of the OCD thing, mainly because he was quite often in charge of unloading the dishwasher and that I regularly threatened his life when I couldn't find the utensil he put away in the wrong place! ;-)

And I've been known to count the cutlery before taking the trash out, especially at large, chaotic gatherings where it would be easy enough to chuck out the silver with the bones....

I guess everyone has their own way in the kitchen--what bothers me about these twonks is that they criticise someone else for their own kitchen ineptitude, and these people they're criticising are not only trained in this, but also depend on their skill for their livelihood.

I hope that the Food Network doesn't look at all this nonsense and hold it against the chef, because I've made some wonderful stuff that has gotten lousy reviews, just because I did it the right way.

I do try to go in and write something positive when I felt that the negative reviews are unfair, but I can't do it every time.

[siliconshaman]

I figure, people think that life's gotta follow the rules they make up. because they're trained to follow rules and BAD THINGS will happen if they don't...

They just get angsty if life don't.

[anahata56]

I guess the real difference between me and the people who write this foolishness is that they're following a different set of "rules".

Granted, baking is a scientific formula--you're not going to get the proper results if you use a tablespoon of baking soda when the recipe calls for a teaspoon. But the big rule is that if you look at it, or poke it a wee bit with your finger to see if it springs back or not, then you can tell that it's done.

This isn't rocket science.

Well, but then again, maybe it is, because how often have real rocket scientist had to look at a situation that wasn't what they expected according to their formula and had to make adjustments?

I read this stuff and it makes me want to say, "Put down that utensil and step away from the stove before you hurt someone."

Sometimes, I can find some amusement in it, but mostly I have a lot of headdesk moments.

Kind of silly getting so riled up about it, I suppose, but...well...we all have our causes, don't we? ;-)

[siliconshaman]

Ha! Cooking is no more a science than alchemy was... oh granted, it's got elements of it, but the day the recipe calls for amounts accurate to 3 decimal places, and dishes turn out exactly as predicted, is the day I'll call it a science.

It's an art, ergo, artistic license applies... besides, I never use a recipe anyway.

[anahata56]

And thank goodness for that, because if it were a true science, then everything we eat would taste the same!

And then it would be a very dismal world.

[wolfette]

I love the new Ocean Spray commercial, where the turkey slides off the table into the bog...

I'm so easily amused that it's frightening.

For a moment I thought "that really is easily amused - I thought Belle to be a bit less grade-school in her humour" - then I remembered that on your side of the Big Pond "the bog" doesn't mean the WC

;-)

[anahata56]

Oh dear me, no....

Over here, we have cranberry bogs, and that's where the turkey ends up....

Surreally, a family is sitting around a holiday table in the middle of a cranberry bog, up to their chair seats in the water, and when Junior (who is a bit of a dolt) tries to set the turkey platter on the table, the bird slides, quite spectacularly, off the platter, onto the table, across the table and PLUNK--into the berry-filled water, as the whole group looks on.

And then it bobs to the surface right at the end, which is just the best.

So yeah, still pretty juvenile, but not quite as juvenile as dumping the thing down the outhouse!

[jaxomsride]

I love the little letter from the author who couldn't add his signature!

I can't understand why anyone would cook something for themselves if they don't like the main ingredient either.
Mind you in our house Zen cooking is more common than the slavish following of recipes.
Also timing tends to be by the nose than by the clock. Apart from anything else we keep forgetting to make a note of the time when we put things in to cook, so all times are approximate.

[anahata56]

The fact that he wrote it in the book, thereby signing the book that he said he wouldn't sign is just so George Bernard Shaw that it's perfect. It is a signature in the most pleasing of respects, because it's not just his name, but his personality and sense of humor as well.

A lot of Zen cooking goes on here as well, and it works pretty well. Of course, there's a little less leeway in baking, but once you have your formulaic chemical reactions under control, you can still do pretty much what you want.

And yes--there's no thermometer or test of doneness like the olfactory one!