The Art of Cooking Well

The Art of Cooking Well ~

Roughly, between the ages of six and twelve I learned a host of various cooking techniques.

I remember these particular instances:

• My paternal grandmother taught me how to make homemade buttermilk biscuits.
• My maternal grandmother taught me to make delicious, moist cakes and broccoli-rice casserole, one of her favorites.
• My dad taught me how to make savory southern gravy and how to fry chicken in a cast iron skillet.
• My stepmother taught me how to make a pot roast in a crock-pot and how to bake a brown sugar ham.
• My aunt taught me how to make homemade potato soup.
• My uncle taught me how to make a roast in the oven.
• My godmother taught me how to fry fresh caught bass, make a jammin chicken casserole, and awesome chocolate chip cookies that won me a blue ribbon in school.
• The father of a childhood friend (a restaurant owner) introduced me to the wonderful world of herbs and spices.
• My babysitter taught me how to poach an egg.
• My cousin taught me how to make buttered egg noodles with Parmesan.

This instruction was the basis for my life-long affair with food.  I later worked at Baskin-Robbins as a teenager and the cake decorator there taught me how to properly ice a cake and make all types of borders with various tips.  She also taught me the art of creating beautiful roses and the leaves surrounding the roses.  And I was able to perfect the art of fluent handwriting for cake decorating.  The lessens learned there have served me well.

Also as a teen I worked at Hardees.  It wasn't long before I was pulled from the drive-thru back into the kitchen - frying up frozen burgers.  It was there that I learned about the short shelf life of fast food and that I wanted no part of the creative-less side of cooking and soon asked to be back on the drive-thru. 

I cooked frequently at home and at the homes of friends.  One of my childhood friends and I cooked all the time.  Later in life, she and I owned and operated a restaurant together.

Another teenage friend (and my BFF for life) and I experimented with foods that were out of the ordinary for both our locale and our non-worldly palates.  My god sister and I were always cooking as well; we made fudge, pizza and casseroles.   

Throughout all of my early cooking experiences – not once was a measurement used in any fashion.  I learned to cook by sight, feel, and taste.

Neither were there any timing devices.  I developed an internal sense of simply “knowing” when something was cooked properly - by sight, smell, and even sound.  There is actually a unique sound emitted from a perfectly cooked piece of protein in a fryer or even in a pan-frying skillet.     

My love of all things food is very much alive and well.  I enjoy sharing my recipes with others and even enjoy giving away my “secret” ingredients and processes.

It is quite tedious and time consuming, though, to measure ingredients and list step-by-step instructions for my recipes.  However, I do realize that most people need that information in order to duplicate the recipe.

Before I started blogging, when someone asked for a recipe I would have to sit down, visualize the process of cooking that particular item, write down the ingredients as I remembered them, and then go back and try to visualize the amounts.  Often, later in the day I would recall an ingredient left out and then follow-up with the requester.

Starting my blog was actually a selfish endeavor to help me catalog my favorite recipes, making the sharing aspect a lot easier.

I think “The Art of Cooking Well” is actually within the experimentation.  Whenever you see a recipe’s ingredient list – I encourage you to consider swapping other ingredients you would like to try.  I often peruse cookbooks to get ideas and then may use a few key ingredients and change more than 75% of the recipe.

Cooking should be fun!  Get engaged in the process of creating something and enjoy the method behind the madness.  Don’t let fear into the mix – What’s the worst that could happen?  You throw it out and begin again, big deal.    

As a special note – in most circumstances there are many ways to repair a recipe if you add too much of something or have the wrong texture, etc.  I am going to compile a list of these “repairs” along with some “cheater” tricks that may help you whenever you find yourself in a bind.  Stay Tuned!

By TR Hughes, © 2008 - 2011 GuideToLifeForWomen.com. 

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