Women Who Can't Cook

Daily Nation (Nairobi) ^ | June 29, 2002 | Oyunga Pala

[mlmr]

LOL!! Grandma sounds like a character.

She was. I miss her more with every passing year.

[muggs]

So, yes, I understand about women who cannot cook. I've ALWAYS been one of them. So was my mom and her mother before her. It's a proud family tradition. Stick that in your microwave and nuke it!

I feel so much better knowing I'm not the only woman on FR that can't cook. My mom can't either.

[Rate_Determining_Step]

Beef Saag, please! Ohhhhhh...

[Rate_Determining_Step]

I've got it made. My wife is not only a good cook, but beautiful as well. I've got it made. :)

But, we do have the standard deal. She cooks most stuff. I like to cook, but she has a better temperment for it and usually shoos me outta the kitchen. Worse, when I do cook, she has to participate. For those trying to do their own thing in the kitchen, this doesn't work.

But, there is flip side to this as well. As a guy, I find waaay too many dudes who can't turn a wrench. I fix the cars. A 66 Mustang doesn't count. My dog can fix a car of that era. It's a dude's dudy to know how to fix a modern, fuel injected, computer controlled car. I also mow the lawn, fix stuff on house. And fix/upgrade the computers.

[strela]

Cornstarch, eh?

!

Thank you.

[tubebender]

"I'm also a big believer in butter for baking. If you're going to bake something, use butter; don't waste all your time and other good ingredients by using margarine. It's an inferior product and you can tell when you eat it. Again, I don't eat cookies every day, but when I bake, I want it to taste good."

My wife won't use any thing but butter in the 50 to 60 dozen cookies she bakes every week for our customers at our business. She does use margerine in one recipe for some reason. She NEVER taste any of the cookies she bakes. (but I do)

One of the secrets of a competent cook is to have every thing done at the right time.

[LaineyDee]

My best friend and I were discussing this very topic recently. I come from the more traditional "Southern Cooking" background. Over the years, I've adjusted it to low-fat, low-salt by adding herbs and spices to keep the best flavors possible. Hubby is Italian, so I've learned to make his favorite dishes as well.

I taught both my kids to cook from an early age... by making them help "Mama" in the kitchen. All of us are busy professionals now... but we manage to cook great meals, jelly fruits and grow small gardens. We can't stand to eat out alot or (ick) buy frozen dinners. I have to agree that most women I know, have been sucked into the fast food lane. Sad, isn't it?

[infowarrior]

Your training, and philosophies in the kitchen match my own. My mother taught me thus, even at an early age, much like you. Mrs infowarrior is a fine cook, but limited largely in the dishes of her native country, Peru. Almost all other cooking styles are done by yours truly...

the infowarrior

[strela]

I wonder how many of you remember homecanning?

Remember it? I was intimately involved with it :)

My mother put up about 50 quarts of green beans, tomatoes, corn, pickled beets, and other veggies as well as 100 half-pints of grape jelly just about every year. What we didn't eat went to friends who started called months before wondering when she was going to make them some jelly, or into the tornado shelter as emergency rations.

I say "involved" because she used the Mustang grapes that grow wild along the roads here in this part of Texas to make her jelly, and I was the one who got shanghaied to go grape-picking every year in July when she got a hankering to start canning. My truck also got pressed into service buying bushels of veggies at the farmers markets before canning day.

Important safety tip: DO NOT be tempted to eat Mustang grapes raw. They will literally strip the hide off the inside of your mouth if you eat enough, a fact I learned from hard experience once.

The house was almost unliveable when Mom started canning - she turned off the A/C because it made the finished product cool down too quickly. It was like living in a sauna for 2 days as her two big pressure cookers and various pots and pans with boiling water ran day and night. She scrubbed and boiled jars, lids, and rings, washed veggies and grapes in a big tub, mashed the grapes into juice, then added boxes and boxes of Sure Jell to this big blue gloppy mix and poured everything into jars and put them into the pressure cookers.

The finished product was certainly delicious though. Store-bought snap beans and blackeyed peas can't touch the home-canned variety. And Mom's grape jelly put anything made by Welches to shame.

Today, I saw bunches of grapes along the side of the road and had to wonder what kind of wine they would make.

[Lurker]

Yep. Mix a couple of tablespoons of cornstarch in some cold water until it is dissolved.

Then use that mixture to thicken your gravy.

It works faster than flour, and you don't get that raw bread dough flavor.

L

[nutmeg]

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