Bless You. Not Me.
By Susan Mercedes. Filed in Food |
I walked through a hip and cool condo in Salt Lake City for fun. After seeing the kitchen I realized this condo could never work for someone like me. It was clearly designed for super tall people with allergies.
Specifically a super tall person who worries about sneezing while they cook. Check out the fucking huge sneeze guard over the stove.
Weird.
One thing is clear: cooking and I continue to misunderstand one another.
I often think I’m the ONLY person who hates to cook. If you agree…here’s a challenge. How can you convince me to love it?
Thursday, June 4th 2009 at 2:34 am
Cooking can be relaxing. You can learn things. You create. It’s an art. Like painting, where you start with a blank canvas and colors, cooking is much the same thing, you start with raw ingredients and the way you put them together creates the final picture. It creates a sense of accomplishment, composing just the right taste. It can be amazing, how combining certain ingredients can create new tastes. You love to eat, and it’s so much more satisfying if you know you made it yourself. Even serving can be fun, finding just the right way to arrange the food on the plates, placing garnish, even the eye gets to enjoy the food. So much more exciting that just ordering from a waiter.
And thanks to the above pictured sneeze-guard you can even be sure that there’s no germs in your home-cooked food.
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Susan Mercedes Reply:
June 5th, 2009 at 12:27 am
TheB0y: Have you met me? Great try, but I’m still not sold. I’d rather watch someone have the orgasmic experience you described and then eat what they made. Simple.
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Thursday, June 4th 2009 at 10:21 am
Sit down and watch the Food Network for a bit. Particularly the shows, ‘Good Eats’ and ‘Food Network Competitions.’ First explains things and makes it easy for the intellectual types, and the second has some magnificent creations that open your eyes to the wonders of what you can ‘create’ in the kitchen. I kinda’ like cooking now thanks to ‘Good Eats’, and thanks to the competitions, I can be lazy by having another show to watch on the tele. Haha!
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Susan Mercedes Reply:
June 4th, 2009 at 11:51 pm
MooKooJoe: I think those shows would just make me hungry. It’s like watching aerobics/yoga/pilates on TV when you don’t want to work out. Of course, it worked for you. We’ll see.
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MooKooJoe Reply:
June 5th, 2009 at 3:41 pm
Haha! Maybe, but like you said, works for me. Good Eats is the one to watch that might get you in the kitchen, but if you were to watch one of those competitions, you probably would just get a watery mouth for some sweets. That’s what they’re competitions about half of the time. Magnificent castles made of nothing but chocolate, sugar, and candies of all sorts… Mmmm… mmm… mmmmm…
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Thursday, June 4th 2009 at 10:27 am
I used to make a big pot of minestrone every Sunday. I’d listen to NPR and drink the wine that didn’t go into the soup. After Prairie Home Companion, I’d be good and lit. Then I’d turn on Verdi and howl like a dog to Violetta’s arias. And my house smelled good.
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Susan Mercedes Reply:
June 4th, 2009 at 11:54 pm
Erin: You crack me up. But I get what you’re hinting at. Sure you can come over to my house and make minestrone. I have plenty of wine we can drink. It’ll be fun. But no howling please.
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Thursday, June 4th 2009 at 11:13 am
Alton Brown is my hero. He explains the why and how of things, and that makes cooking so much better! That said, if you don’t love to cook, just find someone who does, and make them do it! You supply the wine – that’s a fair trade!
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Susan Mercedes Reply:
June 4th, 2009 at 11:56 pm
Misty: I like your idea. Maybe I need to put an ad on my blog for a chef (who will work for wine) search. Good thinking.
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MooKooJoe Reply:
June 5th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
Exactly! Alton Brown is the host of that show ‘Good Eats’ I was talking about. Seriously does make you wanna’ get in the kitchen. Haha!
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Thursday, June 4th 2009 at 11:54 am
I hate cooking with every cell in my body. Good thing husband likes to cook. That’s my suggestion, be with someone who likes to cook so you won’t have to. That or take out.
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Susan Mercedes Reply:
June 4th, 2009 at 11:59 pm
Katy: Great idea. But you’re an online friend, he’s married and I don’t roll that way. Oh, wait, you meant find someone who cooks versus offering up your husband. Starting the search, but in the meantime…out to dinner I go.
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Thursday, June 4th 2009 at 12:57 pm
I love to take cooking classes at Sur La Table.
It is a smashing way to learn how to cook new things, in a social setting, which always makes things more fun.(Or bearable, depending on who you are. Tomato/ Tomahto.)
Bring a friend or cook with strangers, you pick. Either way, the evening ends by noshing on your creations, paired with the perfect wine.
More good news: You can claim to have made something fancy at least one time in your life. No one has to know it was under culinary supervision.
Bon Appetit!
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Susan Mercedes Reply:
June 5th, 2009 at 12:00 am
Heatherp: Okay, that actually sounds fun. Want to know why? The wine part. You know how to sell an idea!
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Thursday, June 4th 2009 at 1:47 pm
I used to cook in my previous life (when I was married). I was Suzy-fucking-homemaker. Every night I would have dinner ready around 6:30. I liked it because I had a rule that if I cooked he had to clean up the dinner mess. But you know what? Right now in my new life, I’ll take doing dishes over cooking any day – and I HATE doing dishes.
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Susan Mercedes Reply:
June 5th, 2009 at 12:02 am
Summer: Have I got the deal for you? I actually love to clean the kitchen. I’d say do dishes, but I have a dishwasher that does that. I don’t mean a person who washes my dishes but an actual machine. Anyhow, you cook and I clean. And we don’t even have to get married. Deal?
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Thursday, June 4th 2009 at 1:57 pm
Watching Nigella Lawson, cooking can be a very sensual experience.
But didn’t you say cooking irritated your asthma?
Want to be cautious of that.
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Susan Mercedes Reply:
June 5th, 2009 at 12:05 am
Stakerized: You’re quite the thinker. My health is super important. And you just got bonus points (fyi…they have no value) for knowing that. So back to square one. No cooking. Cheers to good health. *clink*
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