I do not know how to cook

[afuna]

And I have been scared to learn, so I am determined to do so at some point in this next week.

So far, I have:

• cut carrots (it looks easy! I did not realize it was possible to do it horrendously badly! But I did it anyway! (both the cutting and the horrendously badly!) )
  
  
• cut chicken into chunks (across the grain. or the, the, whatever you call the texture. I think I scared people with my knife. BUT. I did it anyway ahaha )
  
  
• mixed chicken in the thing you coat it in before cooking (in this case, dab of rice wine, black pepper, sesame oil, soy paste. Then some corn starch afterwards, to keep it tender, I think (sesame oil on my hands smells so very good) )
  
  
• rejoiced over not yet wrecking dinner \o/
  
  

PS. Have not yet touched the stove.

Comments

[denise]

http://community.livejournal.com/armchairchef/4632.html :)

[exor674]

You cans do eet!

*\o/*

(lol, threading fail, haha)

[invisionary]

I learned everything I know about cooking as an adult, since my mother had a staunch belief that this was women's work and thus shouldn't teach boys. This was a blessing in disguise, though, because her culinary talents were rudimentary at best (and I'm being excessively polite in putting it that way!).

I will gladly give you advice and encouragement on cooking. Heh, I find I need all the advice and encouragement on coding that I can get! ;)

[azurelunatic]

I am happy to impart whatever rudimentary skills I have that may be of use. Mama taught me the general basics, but then I didn't wind up doing much with them.

[branchandroot]

I totally sympathize. Having a mother who is a cook's cook, I know a lot of things but almost none of them from my own experience, which doesn't make for confidence!

On the other hand, it can be fun once you start to get the basics down.

But chopping is a lot harder than they make it look! All those cooking shows with perfectly julienned veggies sitting around in bowls and they never actually show you how to get them that way.

[zarhooie]

I am proud of you for learning to cook! Learning to use a stove is hard if you don't have any experience. I *highly* recommend learning to cook scrambled eggs and omelettes before you do anything more heavy-duty (like meat) on the stove. Eggs are a great learning tool because they're cheap and finicky. They can be sort of tricky to do, but if you fuck up it's ok, because they're cheap! Once you've got the scrambled eggs down, try an omelette. There are a thousand techniques for omelette-ing and most of them are online. Find one that you're comfortable with, and go for it! If you can't find one, ping me and I'll youtube mine. After omelettes, go for the whole egg stuff (over easy, broken yolk), and after that? THE WORLD.

<3 Let me know if you have any questions, hun.

[amaliedageek]

Cooking is a good: you can eat meals you'd never be able to justify in a restaurant, you can be sure that the ingredients you don't like/can't eat don't show up in a dish, and there's something strengthening in difficult times about being able to walk into the kitchen and know that you can feed yourself/those with you.

And then there are days when you just want minions to bring you a pizza. That's okay, too.

Don't be afraid of screwing up. Don't be afraid of wasting ingredients. Like yarn, most of the time it's a hell of a lot cheaper than therapy and at the end of it, you've got something tangible to point at and say "I made that."

[nova]

You're so cute! *g*

[damned_colonial]

Yup, "grain" is the term I'd use. Good luck with the stove, and add me to the list of people happy to offer tips at any time.

[juliet]

Go you! Also happy to offer cooking tips, although I can't help with meat (been veggie for all of my cooking-life, and vegan for over half of it).

Carrots are surprisingly awkward to cut, IME. But it really, really helps to have a good knife & to keep it SHARP.