I'm deciding that I might NOT like cooking anymore.

[UTUSN]

I hate peeling hard boiled eggs. I hate chopping celery, the curled up cylindrical sides that don't cooperate. The least bothersome are onions, making a shallow cut then peeling off the outer layer, presto. Isn't it all about PREPERATION?!1 So if you start to really HATE that part, isn't it the whole ball of wax?!1

Before it was too late, it dawned on me that I needed to get my mother's recipes, which were NOT written down. The things she learned from my grandmother, that we grew up on, everything from the holiday meals to the every day stuff. I sat her down and interviewed her, step by step, what do you do first. Then what. And then?

But I had absorbed one of the characteristics of my fringe-hippie days, the idea that we were the center of the universe, that we were discovering everything unlike every effing generation before us, so I did have the hutzpah to make changes to her recipes.

Like, substituting chopped pork chop chunks for bacon in something. And substituting Pepperidge herb seasoned bread crumbs for the toast in cubes of the stuffing for turkey.

But the first thing I changed, which absolutely shocked her, was not to peel the potatoes for potato salad.

And actually, a couple of my old aunts approved of my results, so not too shabby.


I've cut way back on the every day stuff, but have kept up the holiday routine. So today I'm doing it, but enjoying it less.

[elleng]

1. NEVER peel potatoes!

[UTUSN]

2. Nope!1 Plus, I never "got" why the toasted crumbs for stuffing needed to be soaked

in COLD water then squeezed into balls before mixing into the rest of the stuff. Now, I put the Pepperidge crumbs in a bowl and add chicken broth enough to moisten/soak and add it all into the rest without draining out any broth, fergeddabout that "squeezing" thing!1

That's another thing. I detest touching stuff with my hands. "Real" cooks seem to enjoy kneading, squeezing, and pummeling with their bare hands. I wash my hands every time a drop of anything is on them. So right there is a clue I'm not really cut out for this cooking thing.

[rasputin1952]

7. LOL...

peeling spuds for potato salad is simply wrong!

Have a great holiday Season...and keep cooking!

Now that we've hijacked your thread, you'll have more time to take up baking!...

[cbayer]

3. Merry Christmas, UTUSN. I hope you and yours have a loving and peaceful Christmas.

And don't give up on cooking! It can be very grounding.

:pals:

[mopinko]

4. i'm just starting to remember why i liked cooking.

cooking for kids is the most soul sucking form of the art. now that they are all adults, they are a lot more interesting to cook for. sometimes they even cook with ya now. hubby does most of the cooking, i cook on tuesdays. i make soup and bread.
i made him a most awesome birthday dinner last week. all the kids came over. it was great fun. there are such crazy good ingredients out there now, too.

[proud patriot]

5. Slowly but surely my MIL has relinquished the Cooking reigns

It started out with giving me one thing to do over the years one more . Cumulating in this Christmas where I am making everything save one thing. It's so nice to give her the chance to
enjoy this day. without the exhaustion I saw in years past . I love cooking especially this meal
for my family. Speaking of which it's time to mix up the Veggie Casserole.

[pinto]

6. Merry, merry Christmas. I don't peel the taters either. Hope you and yours have a good one.

:hi:

[Chemisse]

8. We weren't the center of the universe? LOL - I still think we discovered

things nobody else did.

That has seriously contributed to my attitude that I might think of some new or altered way to cook something that is just as good - or perhaps better - than the recipe that was passed down over 3 generations.

Merry Christmas!

[NRaleighLiberal]

9. Merry Christmas! All the "good stuff" is in the potato peels - we don't peel unless we mash!

Hope you are having a wonderful day!

:hi:

[UTUSN]

10. What the Hades happened here?! The Mods took over?!1 AND I love my special BAYER asperin one!1

But, really, the older I get the more my days are numbered. So I need to tell the people I love that I love them and let the Pepperidge crumbs fall where they might. I love you Bayer.

[Rhiannon12866]

18. I wondered about that, myself, LOL.

I agree that cooking can be very grounding. I find it rather soothing, kind of get into a zone when I'm making something, especially when it's something I like and know is going to turn out well. But I'm also one of those who gets my hands into it. It just seems easier that way, but I also am a real hand washer, too, LOL, so I go through more than one hand towel... I have my mother's original recipe for turkey stuffing, since that's what I'm used to and nothing else measures up, for me. Alas, I don't have much of anybody to cook for, unlike previous years, and I really do miss it... :(

[EFerrari]

11. We are so the center of the unverse!1

[UTUSN]

12. My love, how can you be SO my love and love Huguito?!1 I miss Catwoman and whassername. n/t

(If I can't remember the name of a brilliant and beautiful DUer, what hope IS there?!1)

[pinboy3niner]

13. Oops--sorry! I didn't realize this was the mods' hot tub...

:evilgrin:

[UTUSN]

14. & I'm overwhelmed. & (uh, nevermind. Some things just can't be said.) n/t

[greatauntoftriplets]

15. I hate to cook and like to take the easy way out.

Good for you for not peeling potatoes anymore!

I hope that you had a wonderful Christmas.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

16. you have learned to do things the easy way.

I do Pepperidge Farm stuffing mix, add chicken broth, sauteed onions and chopped up hardboiled eggs and bake it in the oven. My grandmother made stuff from scratch which is stupid, and her stuffing looked like dog food, it was red. I guess it had lots of gizzards in it Gross.

Simple recipes with just a few ingredients are good. That's why i never have done french cooking.

[grasswire]

17. I would never eat gizzards.

Tonight on National Geographic channel they showed a cockatoo with gizzard trouble. On the x-ray, they found 75 metal zipper teeth in the bird's gizzard, plus assorted other flotsam. Now tell me why anyone would eat bird gizzards?

[stuntcat]

19. peel eggs under water!! :D

if you hold eggs under a little stream of water then when you crack the shell the water starts getting into it and it'll slide off easy :headbang:

I was helping all my aunts in the kitchen the other day, well my mom gave my aunt-in-law a bowl of eggs to peel and it took her like 15 minutes! I was busy doing something else and anyway I didn't want to play bossy know-it-all to the grownups so I just let her go on with it.. watching her though, then by the end of it I was getting a twitch in my eye lol