Food

Cooking is something that I enjoy on occasion. The conditions have to be just right:

1. The kitchen needs to be clean.


2. All of the necessary ingredients have to be available. You know. In the house.


3. I have to be cooking something that I like to eat.


4. I don't like cooking for picky eaters.


5. And I don't like being in a rush.

Also, I'm a recipe cook. I'm not the type of person that can glance around the pantry and fridge and make a wonderful meal out of what I see that sounds good together. I can follow a recipe like a champ though. I've never understood how people can be bad cooks if they have a recipe to follow, can read, and can measure. It boggles my mind. My sister comes from a long line of fantastic cooks. She, however, ruins microwave brownies.

Food that comes from a can, jar, or box, i.e., Hamburger Helper, Preggo spaghetti sauce, and the like isn't real cooking. There's nothing wrong with it. I occasionally use ready made ingredients like taco seasoning for instance, but I call that, "throwing dinner together".

Garlic. Garlic is good. It goes in almost any dish and it's really hard to use too much. However, adding tons of garlic to a dish doesn't automatically make it wonderful. There's someone that I know that thinks they can cook by putting random ingredients together, lots of garlic, and then call it a gourmet meal. It's not.

Leftovers. We don't do leftovers. Why? I have no idea. I put leftovers away in the fridge only to throw them out later once they start growing new things. Exceptions to this are tortilla soup, Mexican black bean chili, pasta, and occasionally a roast which I'll turn into stew. Things that don't reheat well: Potatoes...of any variety. They just taste nasty. Mac and cheese out of a box. The homemade kind tastes alright if you add a little milk or cream to it when you reheat. Steak. Turkey. I know a lot of people will probably disagree with me on this. I think that reheated Thanksgiving turkey tastes funny. Funny in a not good sorta way. Don't get me wrong. We put the leftovers to good use as sandwiches and I chop up a good part of the bird to go into a turkey pot pie (pie crust pre-made from Pilsbury. I don't do pie crust.). But just to reheat the meat with the sides is icky.

Breakfast for dinner. Ain't nothing wrong with that. In fact, I'm making breakfast burritos for dinner tonight which was part of the inspiration for this post. See. I'm making my own chorizo to go into them because chorizo is nowhere to be found outside of the southwest for some reason. And I make it from scratch and it's really good if I do say so myself. And I use tons of garlic.

The other part of the inspiration came from my lunch which was reheated southwest potato stew. The potatoes tasted gross but the stew part was really good.

As for desserts...How much would you pay for a slice (or the whole thing if you're of a mind) of this scrumptious apple cheesecake with streusel and caramel topping?