Thursday, December 4, 2008

Procrastination

Dishes I Like to Cook:
-Chicken and Wine Sauce
-Rice (I cheat because I have a rice cooker)
-Pies (technically not a dish?)
-Quiche
-Crepes
-Cakes (from scratch)
-Oatmeal (this shouldn't really count, since I prefer recipes I've had from other people, and I only ever eat instant oatmeal...)
-Cabbage soup (I really only ever made this for a few months a couple years ago...)
-Leek and potato soup (which my roommates that year said made the entire apartment smell like leeks)
-Various mixes (anything from cake to couscous to I don't know what)
-Pot roast

Dishes I Often/Always Mess Up On:
-Pizza (something about home-made dough eludes my culinary understanding, although I was good for a while)
-Pancakes
-Cakes (from scratch)
-French Toast (I really just messed up this one time in the dorms, but it was quite awful)
-Gravy (I've only made it three times or so, in various forms, but I always do something wrong)
-Lots of other things I've apparently blocked out of my memory
-Whipping Cream (I'm too impatient to wait for it to be completely whipped, so it's a voluntary mistake)

Things I Prefer Others To Do At Meals (Especially If I Cooked):
-Cut any dish that needs it
-Pray
-Decide where to sit
-Start serving themselves/ Help themselves to seconds/thirds/whatever
-Ask for whatever I forgot to put on the table (I don't put salt/pepper/butter on my food and I forget that people do)
-Offering to help clean up, but letting me do the real work in the clean-up process
-Listening to my story about whatever I've cooked (there often is some story to tell about anything I cook)

Things I Like About Cooking:
-
Feeding others
-Experimenting
-Creating something (hopefully) pleasurable
-Cleaning before and after (as long as it's my own mess)
-Coordinating and organizing a meal
-The smell of freshly baked goods
-Learning about what tastes good and what doesn't
-(For some) The history of a dish
-Eating

Things I Don't Like About Cooking:
-Being subjected to others' tastes/likes/dislikes/allergies
-Making a mess
-Messing up (it always happens, but it's usually easy to fix/hide)
-Smelly kitchens/apartments/houses from smelly ingredients
-Not making enough for everyone
-Worrying about feeding everyone (usually I actually end up with a ridiculous amount of food because of this)
-Hard-to-find ingredients

My Favorite (Home-Made) Meals:
-Grilled Sardines (at a Provencal restaurant in Paris)
-Most sandwiches from Study Abroad
-Galettes in Brittany
-Chicken and Wine Sauce (with rice, rolls, bananas)
-Home-made pizza
-Tartine with chocolate milk
-Tomato soup with a tuna melt
-Peas and Tuna (I think I'm the only one I know who likes this. You do add salt and pepper...)
-Fondue
-Pretty much any meal with friends, and most with family

1 comment:

Kate Challis said...

I like the Mexican hats. I also was really surprised at your list of things that you wish other people would do at dinner. Next time you come over for dinner, I'll be sure to ask for the salt, start serving myself seconds, and then offer to help with cleanup.

Doug Fabrizio isn't gay!