How good a cook are you?

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Cooking and baking are things I have been doing since I was very young. I do most of the cooking for my family, bake bread from scratch, etc. I find it very relaxing. My cooking skills are one of a very few things I allow myself to brag about. I am a very good cook, cooking and reading are the only skills that come naturally to me

I can cook, but the problem is that generally I do not cook, for the simple reason of laziness.

When I am not connected to the internet, I can actually do a reasonably passable version of an edible meal; the problem is that I often go days on end without cooking, if I am on the computer.

Even if I do cook, it is around early morning before I eat anything (I don't do breakfast or lunch, because it means having to cook again later), so that leaves until the following morning and sometimes I am just too tired.

At least I stay quite slim though.

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I've cooked/prepcooked commercially in some fairly fancy restarants, so I can cook fairly well, though I wouldn't call myself a Chef, which in a restaurant is the term used for the head cook/kitchen manager.

11:37AM (EST) That being said, I'm sure that I could make a go at being a restaurantuer if I had the Desire/cashflow/ to pull it off. --I REALLY don't want to bear that burden, however.

I can make a handful of things now, from fresh ingredients, but when I first moved out of home I could not make anything that was not intended for the microwave oven. When I tried, I would ruin basically anything. It did not matter how simple it was. With a lot of effort, and tremendous patience from my wife, I have been able to make a few things on my own. If I have never made it before, though, I often have lots of questions when it comes to some of the 'subjective' areas of a recipe. Some terms are used that don't have clear definitions, and that always throws me if I've never done it before.

I seem to be able to chuck a heap of crap together and make a tasty (but visually ugly) meal out of it.
I can follow recipes pretty easily (if they use plain english "Fold what!? Cream... But it asked for milk!? AHHH!")

I think I inhereted my cooking skills from my Dad, he's a pretty damn good cook

I think it also might be an Aspie skill, being able to 'visualise' the taste of each ingredient added or not added to estimate the overall taste, I've been able to do that for years.

GA

When I was a kid, my mum hated cooking and wasn't that good at it (her cakes are great mind you), so I started cooking for the family and realised I really enjoyed it.

I love cooking. It's something I can do well, and I like to try new recipes. I don't tend to use recipes from books, just make up my own because I'm good at telling what ingredients will go together well.

The only thing that causes me difficulty is organising the tasks so that every part of the meal is ready at the same time. Because of this it takes ages for me to cook a meal and I have become expert at keeping things warm until the rest is ready! Took me 2 1/2 hours to cook a meal last night Tasted good though and my partner had a second helping

I cook very well but these days it's fairly minimal; I only the use the hob and my rule of thumb is I put the carbohydrate stuff on first (pasta, rice, potatoes etc) and then whatever else I'm having has to be done in that amount of time.

I generally have a middle-eastern theme going on (love cous-cous and lamb), although that often comes down to throwing a load of hot sauce over whatever I happen to have made!

I eat organic as much as possible.

Does "cooking" happen to include using the microwave? Cause if it does, I'm a real wiz at cooking.

Well lets see..

For breakfast, a bowl of cereal is easy.

Otherwise, I can make eggs, bacon, toast, sausage, hash, hash browns, potatoes, english muffins, and pancakes<(very rarely)

For lunch and dinner

Grilled cheese, mac and cheese, pizza, salad... That's all I can think of for now.

I can heat things up. That's pretty much it.

Oh, and I can wash vegetables and fruit, and cut off the non-edible parts. So I suppose I could make a salad. The veggies usually vanish long before they ever make it into a salad, though; I'm quite partial to fresh crunchy things.

I can follow a recipe, but I can't come up with food from what we have or deviate from a recipe. A meal from fresh ingredients is doable if I'm given an explicit recipe to follow. However, it doesn't matter how simple it is, I can't even come up with something to put on pasta that isn't something I knew about beforehand and had the list of things to put on it.

I didn't know how to cook for a very long time. When I did cook, I would do mostly pre-packaged meals and follow the directions as if I were doing a science experiment. It never worked out so well since sometimes the recipes weren't written properly. If I added too much or too little, I'd have no idea how to fix it.

A few years back, I started watching my boyfriend cook food, and began to just say no to recipes and pick up some actual fresh ingredients. While I still can't multitask worth beans, I can now cook some decent soups and other simple stuff. Soups are great because I only need to focus on one task and it all turns out okay. And I stopped using recipes for the most part so I wouldn't just blindly follow the directions.

Eventually, I'd like to find a nice happy medium where I can follow recipes and still improvise on my own.

I am a very good cook. I can make a bowl of french onion soup that would make you cry tears of joy.

Whaddya want?

My salads are exquisitely beautiful; I'm told that my steaks surpass the best available in any restaurant in New York; my lamb kabobs impress native Lebanese; I've had Italian-Americans swear that my Manicotti and Lasagne KILL their grand mama's; my hash browns are better than the Waffle House's. I've had professional chefs beg me for my recipes.

Chicken Cordon Bleu; spicy-sweet honey glazed shrimp skewers; seafood bisque; gazpatcho; veal, lamb and ricotta meatballs and Balsamic-glazed Salmon make regular appearances on our table.

That's too "grand" for your taste? How about bourbon peach cobbler, cheesecake, biscuits and sausage gravy, fried chicken, shrimp or fish, twice-baked potatoes, tomato pie, or country fried steak (and gravy - can't forget the gravy! )?

Not impressive enough? OK - death by Lobster! Lobster bisque, lobster mashed potatoes and lobster stuffed beef tenderloin, with a side of Lobster Thermidor.

Yeah, if I've never made it, I'm gonna find a recipe first - but that doesn't mean I won't modify it. Even the first time I make it. I have been described as "fearless" in the kitchen.

So . . . Whaddya want?



I'll give you three guesses what my current, primary special interest is!

I can spread peanut butter on bread to make a sandwich, that's about it. I refuse to cook as long as I live.