Cooking

I am not a great cook. My ex-roommate once said that I liked the idea of cooking more than cooking.  And she was probably right.  Great cooking requires patience.  It requires prepping and chopping and mixing.  Then baking or sautéing, or frying or stewing and waiting.  Waiting and watching.  And being patient.  Presently, I have an electric stove.  Not a good choice for me.  I hate waiting for the heat.  Gas is instantaneous.  My favorite word.  Electric stoves take more attention and patience. 

My sister and I were in the kitchen at a young age, making mostly cakes and puddings from boxes.  Cooked pudding, (I hate instant pudding), takes time and of course patience.  You have cook it slowly and stir frequently if not constantly to keep it from burning.  I was probably only successful half the time.  You get use the taste of burnt pudding when you are not patient.  And when you are baking cakes it is important if you are making a layer cake that you let it cool before frosting.  I always wondered why the top layer kept sliding off.  Oh wait you have to let it cool first.  Right.  I think that's why I like baking sheet cakes.

Then there is the idea of convenience food that have been produced over the years. And better yet fast food, or food already cooked from the grocery store.   Is it for our convenience or is it because as a nation we are too impatient to actually cook anymore?  We want everything fast.  I think even for those of you who aren't impatient by nature as I am, you are being groomed to be impatient.  How often do we get upset if the McDonald's line is too long?  And I am quite sure it has lead to the obesity in this country.  In his book "Food Rules," Michael Pollan says that you can eat what ever you want but you have to cook it.  In other words if I want fried chicken I have to make it myself.  My aunt Hellen fried chicken.  I think she was a patient woman.  I have never friend chicken in my life.  Why would I do that when I can have it instantaneously from KFC or better yet Popeyes's?  Not as good as Aunt Helen's but I think of her every time I eat it which is frequently.

A few years ago I was trying to become a better cook.  I was reading blogs and articles on the internet.  I learned about prepping.  Never before had the idea of having all your ingredients chopped and ready to go occurred to me.  I always wondered why some of my vegetables got over cooked while I was chopping as I went.  But prepping takes patience.  It makes sense and my recipes certainly come out better.  But it is still a difficult concept for me.  Preparations and impatience do not make a good match.

This morning I was frying bacon, focusing on being patient.  I love my bacon soft and chewy, not crispy.  To get bacon to come out that way you have to pay attention to it.  You have to cook it slowly.  You can't hurry it.  And this morning I had the perfect bacon.  So maybe there is hope for me yet.

Not my kitchen.