As most of my friends and family know, I love to cook. My Mom wonders where I got it from, because she does not enjoy cooking that often. When I was little, and from what I can remeber, my Mom did not really cook a great deal of different things. It was generally Spaghetti with meat sauce with garlic toast, pork-chops (which I despised), rice, butter beans, green beans, black beans, occasionaly I could talk her into spinach quiesh (the ex didn't like quiesh), lasganiagh from a box (it was good, and it was fast), creamed beef on toast, my favorite and still is today was cubed steak or chicken fried steak, howver you wan't to put it, mashed potatoes, and maccaronni and cheese, There might be more that I am forgetting, but even Mom will admit she can't remeber what happened yesterday let alone what she used to cook when I was little.
Although, she does remeber the good stuff from when I was a kid.
I love of cooking stated fairly early, it probably stemmed from watching my Nanny make us waffles and cookies, although I still smell collard greens when ever I see her, no matter if she's made them or not, its just one of those memory smells that has yet to leave. When I mas in middle school, I actually took home economics twice. I learned how to make an omelet, and my favorite...cinnamon rolls! I learned to sew too, but the best was the cooking.
Ever since I've been on my own, my experimentation in the world of culinary cuisine has grown. My ideas come from watching food network. The other day, I was watching an episode of the Barefoot Contessa, she was making a spinach and cheddar souffle. I had never made a souffle before, and I had actually been wanting to make one. Theirs a recipe for a chocolate souffle on the back of the ghirardelli baking chocolate wrapper.
Since the Barefoot Contessa made it look rather simple, I decided I would try and make the souffle. It turned out really well. Although I did mix up the part where it calls to put the egg YOLKS in the flour, butter mixture...I put the egg WHITES in there! It was funny to me, I seem to always do that, misread directions . I think it was a bit to eggy, and I probably should have used the aged cheddar like the Contessa recommended, but I'm trying to pinch penny's and I just bought the packaged cheese. It probably DOES make a difference in taste. To rectify me using whites, instead of yolks, after I had already mixed the whites in, I went ahead and just figured I'd add in the yokes too. Then when it really called to add the whites, I added more....I'm such a perfectionist when it comes to cooking.
The spinach was a little troublesome, mainly because it didn't thaw completely and I had to spray it with water to melt the remaining ice. Other than that it's not a big problem, just let the spinach thaw either in it's packaging or in a strainer. Then when it's completely done thawing, do your best to squeeze all the water out. If you need to you can always squeeze what you can with your hand then wrap it in a paper towel and squeeze it out more, since the towel will help to draw out more of the water.
Just on key thing to do, when you cook the souffle, you can't open the oven door. If you do that then it will cause it to fall, and that's not good. Just peek at it from the outside if you so desire.
One thing I would like to do in order to improve is get a new cook-book. I would like to get Julia Childes cook book the one with both volumes. She was great at French cuisine, and I'm anxious to try some of her recipes.
manger heureuse!
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