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Cooking With Lore
Jul. 11th, 2002 02:08 pmReal Cooking: Finally, recipes I can follow.
There is not a word in that article that doesn't deeply resonate with my frustration with cooking. Many many times I have gone to the store and bought some fresh produce thinking "I'll make something with this!" And then I find it three months later in my fridge, and I throw it away. And even when I use my fresh ingredients, I don't use all of them fast enough, and I end up throwing some away. Even eggs.
You may not have heard, but I'm not making homemade mayonnaise anymore. Why not, you ask? Well, my parents were coming over, and they called me on the cell phone and asked if they could pick up some things so I don't have to spend twenty minutes carrying heavy groceries home. Since it was June and I live in Phoenix, I naturally accepted. Then my mother called me with many many ideas on what else they could get me, including Miracle Whip. I told them to get real mayonnaise instead. Now I have a giant jar of preservative-laden mayonnaise in my fridge that'll last me until the winter. Well, at least I don't have any excuse not to make tuna sandwiches, unless I'm out of tuna or until I run out of pickle relish.
At least Lore has the foresight to measure out his sugar before finding out he doesn't have enough.
Coincidentally, I'm Just Here for the Food, a book by Good Eats host Alton Brown, is waiting for me at my apartment complex's front office. Alton Brown seems to recognize the fact that most people who try to cook at home are, in fact, mortal. And that's why the first thing he explains in his book is: how to read a recipe. I took a look at it when I was at Border's the other day, and that chapter, both by its content and its mere presence, establishes that recipe writers will too often assume that we, the readers, will take all the same things for granted that they do. In reality, most of us will make decisions like "uh, out of apple juice... I'll just substitute applesauce!" And, knowing this, one of the things he explains in that chapter is what separates a good recipe substitution for a bad one. I can tell I"m going to like this book.
There is not a word in that article that doesn't deeply resonate with my frustration with cooking. Many many times I have gone to the store and bought some fresh produce thinking "I'll make something with this!" And then I find it three months later in my fridge, and I throw it away. And even when I use my fresh ingredients, I don't use all of them fast enough, and I end up throwing some away. Even eggs.
You may not have heard, but I'm not making homemade mayonnaise anymore. Why not, you ask? Well, my parents were coming over, and they called me on the cell phone and asked if they could pick up some things so I don't have to spend twenty minutes carrying heavy groceries home. Since it was June and I live in Phoenix, I naturally accepted. Then my mother called me with many many ideas on what else they could get me, including Miracle Whip. I told them to get real mayonnaise instead. Now I have a giant jar of preservative-laden mayonnaise in my fridge that'll last me until the winter. Well, at least I don't have any excuse not to make tuna sandwiches, unless I'm out of tuna or until I run out of pickle relish.
At least Lore has the foresight to measure out his sugar before finding out he doesn't have enough.
Coincidentally, I'm Just Here for the Food, a book by Good Eats host Alton Brown, is waiting for me at my apartment complex's front office. Alton Brown seems to recognize the fact that most people who try to cook at home are, in fact, mortal. And that's why the first thing he explains in his book is: how to read a recipe. I took a look at it when I was at Border's the other day, and that chapter, both by its content and its mere presence, establishes that recipe writers will too often assume that we, the readers, will take all the same things for granted that they do. In reality, most of us will make decisions like "uh, out of apple juice... I'll just substitute applesauce!" And, knowing this, one of the things he explains in that chapter is what separates a good recipe substitution for a bad one. I can tell I"m going to like this book.
