Cooking

I came across this at Milk and Honey. Warning: not for the faint of heart.

1. How many meals does most of your family eat at home each week? How many are in your family?
There are three of us, unless you want to count the guinea pigs. They always eat at home.
Breakfast: 7
Lunch: just weekends, although I tend to eat at home on the days I don't work
Dinner: 5-7 (I count pizza night as "at home" even if I don't cook!)

2. How many cookbooks do you own?
Too damn many. I only use two regularly along with maybe 4 others (all out of print--sorry, no links) that are the backups for weird stuff, and the one recipe each that I refer to. I also have a 3-ring binder (a photo album kind of thing) that is full of my own recipes. I use that more than anything, actually.

3. How often do you refer to a cookbook each week?
Pretty much every time I cook, unless I know the recipe by heart, like mac-n-cheese and bread.

4. Do you collect recipes from other sources?
Not anymore. I don't have time, much less the inclination, to make them, and I hate cooking anyway.

5. How do you store those recipes?
I have the three-ring binder, and a box of recipes, mostly from my childhood. It also has some from my mom and grandmas, and from other friends and family members.

6. When you cook, do you follow the recipe pretty closely, or do you use recipes primarily to give you ideas?
Depends on how well I know the recipe. I almost never use measuring spoons for less than a tablespoon (cupping the palm of my hand lets me eyeball it pretty easily).

7. Is there a particular ethnic style or flavor that predominates in your cooking? If so, what is it?
Is "easy" an ethnic style? We eat pasta, pseudo-Mexican, American (i.e. red meat and potatoes for the most part. Also, lots of chicken, and some Greek and African dishes. And Asian: Tikka for example... mmm, I should make that one of these nights...

8. What's your favorite kitchen task related to meal planning and preparation?
Clean up, i.e. finishing it.

9. What's your least favorite part?
I hate almost all of the whole procedure. I hate the planning, the shopping, the remembering-to-defrost, the chopping... The only part I don't actively loathe is actually putting all the ingredients together and cooking them.

10. Do you plan menus before you shop?
Of course. Otherwise--and this has happened innumberable times--you end up with chicken and rice-except-oops-we-don't-have-rice-so-howzabout-noodles-instead. That alternates with "Honey can you stop at the store for _____" Casserole.

One of the cookbooks I use has all the menus planned out for the week, along with a shopping list for the week!!

11. What are your three favorite kitchen tools or appliances?
I use the toaster oven every day, and the microwave. I really like the new electric skillet I bought last fall, it's so much nicer than my old one (at 18 years, it was just ... tired). This isn't exactly like mine; mine is more oval and swooshy and cool. But it has a similar lid and finish to this one.

And I love our stove (glass top, easy to clean) and the fact that I can get ice and water out of the door of the fridge.

12. If you could buy one new thing for your kitchen, money was no object, and space not an issue, what would you most like to have?
Easiest question by far: I'd hire a cook.

13. Since money and space probably are objects, what are you most likely to buy next?
Either new glassware, or a small paring knife to replace the one that mysteriously disappeared several months ago.

14. Do you have a separate freezer for storage?
Yes, and a backup fridge (until it dies).

15. Grocery shop alone or with others?
The person from whom I stole this says, "I LOVE grocery shopping--I think it's so much fun to wander the aisles..." Whereas I can't wait to get the hell outta Dodge in the shortest time possible. I have my list, I find what I need quickly (sometimes you'll hear me muttering, "Damn it, where are the FUCKING roasted peppers??" when I'm not keying on how the store is arranged), pay, and leave. Sparky occasionally comes with me to "push the cart" (it's really a way of spending time with him without pressure), but Beast is NOT ALLOWED. He's less patient than I am and it makes me nuts, especially since I'm barely hanging on to any shreds of zen I might have scrounged up to get through the ordeal.

16. How many meatless main dish meals do you fix in a week?
We are meat-and-potatoes, so we have meat almost every meal, unless it's mac-n-cheese or Lazy-Mom Spaghetti. I probably do a completely meatless meal about 3 times a month.

This makes it tricky when my two vegetarian nieces visit....

17. If you have a decorating theme in your kitchen, what is it? Favorite kitchen colors?
Oh, dear Lord... Please, no themes in the kitchen; they just aren't hygienic.

Right now we have builder-white walls, standard-issue oak cabinets, and standard white countertops. Pretty dull. We aren't sure what color to paint the walls, since our light fixtures throw yellow light. I do like the white, though it's not a good color for a kitchen, is it?

I'm frankly just pleased if we haven't gone the way of Early Pasta Sauce Decor. Our last house had countertops with the texture and look of brown leather. That was not a good look either.

18. What's the first thing you ever learned to cook, and how old were you?
On Sundays, as far back as I can remember, when we got home from church we walked into a house redolent with the smell of meat cooking. My job was to change out of my "church clothes" and then come peel potatoes for the pressure cooker. Usually they ended up mashed. I could peel potatoes and cook 'em on my own by age 11. It wasn't until a couple of years later that I discovered that, when mashing them, it's better to drain out the water in which they've been cooking, else it's potato soup.

19. How did you learn to cook?
From my mom. Unfortunately, she hates to cook too, and isn't good at it. I was 25 before I realized that pork chops are actually meant to be chewed gently, not gnawed. Everything healthy, except salads and frozen veggies, that I know how to cook is because I've used cookbooks to learn. Shhh, don't tell me mum.