Your cooking style/dishes vs. your S.O.'s style

[shootingstar]

It's always good to know how to cook some stuff decently for meals. After all our S.O., will not always be around on earth or vice versa.

To me...it's a life skill, in some cases, a survival skill.

He's making herbed spaetzle here (a German side dish). His is kind of lumpy since we just haven't invested in a spaetzle-making instrument. All the stuff on the counter is actually very well-organized with chopped up ingredients for various dishes, etc. That's his style. I'm more messy.

He taught his ex-wife how to cook better (her mom died when she was a teen) who is originally from England (Traditional Brit cooking is not known to be gourmet, if we subtract Britain's former colonies, India, even Hong Kong, etc.).

His mother was a terrific cook and gourmet baker..she did have a personal gentle style that made any teen/kid interested in seeing how she prepared some of their favourite dishes. So that's how he learned.

His son is a sous chef at a restaurant in downtown Toronto and was recently reviewed by local press. It's a Jamie Olivier type of restaurant...you know take in hard-to-employ youth and give them skills. The restaurant is part of the City of Toronto's services, a non-profit effort. So this culinary skill stuff is being passed down naturally to whoever, is interested through his family. He and his son, naturally and occasionally talk about certain dishes and preparation techniques. ie. he learned from his son how to prepare bison in a great way.

The funniest thing one time, was when his son prepared an 8-course meal for him. (No way, he was going to turn that down. He only sees his son once annually...living thousands of km. away.) Dearie then biked 16 km. to join my family's barbecue ..where he politely ate abit more.

He was very stuffed.

[shootingstar]

At university, I cooked my own meals from scratch. To me, it was therapeutic fun -- from studying. It never took me ages to prepare dinner anyway.

Also curbed homesickness at that time, since I often prepared dishes that my mother taught me. And yea, it was healthy cooking, only because I didn't know anything different than what I learned from mother and I didn't make much effort to find recipes during studies.

[Koronin]

What area are you from, if you don't mind me asking? I went to college within spitting distance of Little Italy (in Cleveland), and I very much miss the cheapish and tasty Italian food. And the gelato...especially the gelato...

I'm originally from Warren, Ohio. It's probably an hour and a half or so south to south east of Cleveland. Basically it's right between Cleveland and Pittsburgh, PA. My family still lives there.

[smilingcat]

Taking out stress from cooking.

First and foremost. One of the first classes in cooking school, besides learning about knife safety, is "Mise en Place".

Have all your ingredients ready to go. Measured out, chopped, minced, sliced, marinating. all the ingredients are placed in its own plate or bowl. You only turn on the stove when all the ingredients are prepped. This will make your cooking a lot less stressful.

Another important thing. A honest to goodness recipe should list out the order of ingredients in order of use. It should not be by volume or by weight. Look carefully at even Betty Crocker cookbook. It will list the ingredients in order of use.

So when you get your ingredient prepped, order them according to the recipe.

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