Since I’ve been working with Coach Nick on nutrition, I’ve been cooking a lot more than I ever have before. In the process, I’ve realized a few things about myself in the kitchen:
1. I have no idea how to cook meat. I mean, I put it on the stove but then I have no idea how long or what temperature and I always end up cutting into it to see if it’s done. I have a huge fear that I’m going to kill the S.O. and I one of these days. Or at least put us in the ER from crapping ourselves to near death.
2. I have little to no idea how to cook veggies that don’t come in a can. I have since learned to sauté spinach (this is so easy, why am I so dumb?), roast veggies (mine came out a little mushy, maybe too many on the pan?), and cut squash (not as easy as it sounds).
3. I never read the recipe all the way through and it burns me every. single. time. I buy the ingredients and then I just start going down the list until I hit a step that says something like, “use shredded chicken.” Ohhhhh, you mean all that shredded chicken I was supposed to have pre-made? Or it’ll say, “using a high speed blender…” Do I have a high speed blender? Aren’t all blenders high speed? WTF. I feel like this sort of stuff should be at the top of recipes. Anyone else?
Needless to say, B.o.B. did not take home economics in junior high. B.o.B. took journalism instead. I was taking a stand in not taking home ec (because, girl power) and now I realize that I could have taken home ec, been a feminist, and still majored in journalism in college. And I probably would have figured out how to cook some goddamn chicken.
In any event, I’m learning now and that’s really all that matters. And if you are laughing as you read this, please feel free to give me some tips in the comments. I’ll take any of them! Seriously.
I wanted to share a recipe I made the other night because it was DELICIOUS. Like, I wanna eat this every week delicious. And, it was EASY. That whole “shredded chicken” thing did come into play but as per usual when I’m cooking, I just sort of improvised.
THIS is the original recipe. I made a few changes. For starters, I didn’t make the chicken stock. I don’t have time for all that. I mean, I probably do, but I really don’t wanna take time to make chicken stock. I bought organic chicken stock from Whole Foods. Also, the chicken, yeah, I didn’t make shredded chicken in advance so I enlisted the S.O. to cook some chicken while I chopped veggies. I just dumped it into the soup after it was cooked and let it simmer with the soup.
As for the butternut squash, well that was a whole other debacle. The recipe says “1/4 medium butternut squash, chopped into cubes.” Um. Ok, so I guess I don’t have good knives because I started hacking into this squash and it wasn’t happening. I have no idea if the recipe meant to roast it first so you could cut into cubes or what, but I wound up throwing the squash, which I’d cut in half lengthwise, into the microwave for about ten minutes to soften it up. Then I sorta had cubes. Or just randomly sized pieces of squash.
And there you have it. This is a good lesson to recipe writers out there, please don’t assume that people using your recipe have a clue what you are talking about. Especially if they skipped home ec in eighth grade.
1) Hooray for learning to cook!
2) Buy the frozen butternut squash – it comes in cubes, and it will change your life. Or at least shorten your prep work.
3) You can use a rotisserie chicken to save time – it's already cooked, all you have to do is shred it and toss it into whatever you are making.
4) Mushy roasted veggies = too much oil
You and I could be cooking twins! LOL. I do all the same things. I'm trying to learn though, and you'd think by age 43 that I'd have learned my lesson. But no. This is why I always have frozen broccoli cheese and frozen cooked chicken strips in my freezer. It's emergency food for all those f'ups I make!
Get Michael Symon's Five in Five cookbook–5 ingredients, 5 minutes of prep. It's SOOOOO easy with that one. I also got my daughter a cookbook that was all the basics; I can't remember the title but will get it if you want it. It had tons of photos and everything, which is invaluable.
Buy rotisserie chickens for anything that says shredded chicken–already cooked, just pull it apart.
Get a meat thermometer. Indispensable and cheap tool. Most of them have the "done" temp for chicken, pork, etc. on them. Always insert it in the thickest part of the meat, never against a bone.
Local places offer cooking classes, like Southern Steer Butcher shop. Williams Sonoma does too. Kinda fun and easy ways to learn.
You'll learn it — if I could, then anyone can 🙂
One of the best kitchen tools that I have is actually one that I got this past Christmas. It's a grill fork that tells you if meat is done by temperature. It's from brookstone and has saved me from having to cut into all my pork, chicken, and steak!
I'm a decent cook. My SO thinks I'm some kind of gourmet chef. But, I'm taking notes… LOL
I also have the tendency to cut into the meat to make sure it's done. I'm going to add a meat thermometer to my list. I'm always all "why would I ever need that?", but yeah, I think I do need that.
Haha, totally in your boat with the Home Ec comment! I felt the same way, refused to learn any of it!! I turned myself into a biologist but took no time to learn skills of home life and have paid for it ever since (see:english muffin pizzas for dinner well into my 30s). I did try to go back to learn some stuff and am proud to now call myself a knitter and baker…but a cook? Still not so much. My solution was to marry a man who is an incredible cook and eat all the yummy things he makes 🙂 I can tell you from watching him that he loves his meat thermometer and that I also agree that too much oil was prob your issue with the veggies. Or not cooking them long enough – to get them just right, patience is important. Good luck!
Come visit me in Minnesota, and I'll happily teach you 🙂 My mom was a home ec teacher, so I learned young! As for the butternut squash… we always peel it first (Cutco peeler FTW!) and then cut in half the short way so you can scoop out the seeds and then cube. But, really, we rarely follow a recipe and instead just mix stuff together. A recent fave: brown ground bison (seasoned with Rogan Josh from Penzeys), add graded sweet potato and kale (or spinach), serve over quinoa and then grate some cheddar on top. So good and so simple to make!
Yeah. I don't know how to cook either. Or read recipes. "Just the egg yolk? I'll use the whole egg, what is the difference anyway…" Costco sells precut butternut squash just FYI. I tried making spaghetti squash 5 years ago and squash prep and I don't get along. I would have said your veggies were mushy from cooking too long but after reading some of the comments above I would not go with my 'advice'.
Um, I took Home Ec and I still suck at cooking sometimes. As for cutting squash – those things are the effing devil and I also have shitty knives. Thanks to a few of your comments here, I now know that there is such a thing as frozen squash!
I totally blame my parents on my lack of cooking skills or the desire to cook. I am just happy making a bowl of popcorn and some pasta. Really anything in a bowl makes me content. Now that I have Matt to "cook" for (lets be real…he does most of the cooking), I have had to actually put on a care for cooking face.
It is HARD! Dont fret, I am still a total noob in the kitchen and just say thank goodness we own a kitchen thermometer.