Let me start off by warning away those who think this might be a diary with a recipe in it, particularly of the sort that asimbagirl has posted in the past, featuring detailed photos of how to create something scrumptious. Sorry. No, what follows is a personal account of how I started cooking, how I stopped cooking, and how I am (feebly) trying to start cooking again.
Make the jumps for the story...
First, a word from our sponsors:
Many powerful and pithy diaries are published every day here on Daily Kos. The Top Comments diary series reviews the best comments of the day, where "best" can mean most recommended, most knowledgeable, most passionate, most appropriate in context, or just plain most funny. Any kossack can nominate a comment or three for Top Comments. All one has to do is send an e-mail with link(s) to the comment(s) to topcomments-[at]-gmail-[dot]-com. even if you don't nominate, stop by anyway because you never know when someone else has nominated one of your comments! Then stick around awhile and chat!
I did not learn to cook until I was forced to. At home, growing up, my mother did most of the cooking. When I finally left home to go to graduate school, in the first year, I provided my own breakfasts (cereal--big whoop) while buying lunch and dinner on or near the university campus. I was able to eat dinner very cheaply at one of the university cafeterias. In the second year, I shared a house with two other chemistry grad students who were both vegetarians. We made an arrangement where they would cook and I would wash dishes, while spitting the food costs three ways. That arrangement did not last. They decided that I was eating way more than they were (as the sole male in the household, this might be expected), and so midway through the year, our arrangement came to an end, and I was on my own with the food.
It was at that point that I decided to learn how to cook. Partly it was curiosity about what I was capable of, and partly it was yet another step in asserting my independence. Given the resources I had (In a house of vegetarians), I started cooking dishes out of Recipes from Moosewood. I liked what I cooked. If I didn't like what came out of a particular recipe, I didn't make that one again. (Actually, the old, original Recipes from Moosewood had a liberal use of cheese in many dishes, and if you put cheese on just about anything, I'll eat it.)
At the end of that year, for various reasons, our household broke up, and I shared another house with other chemistry grad students. I continued cooking for myself, and I started to try more sophisticated recipes, ones that required the use of filo dough, or that required making bread dough. I was pretty successful at it, and so I built up a repertoire of recipes that I could cook and eat for a few days. This was my mode of feeding myself for more than a decade.
Then I met my partner. When we moved in together, it became apparent that of the two of us, he was the one who was more kitchen oriented. Eating leftovers of last night's dinner (which is what I had been doing) didn't really appeal to him. I would cook dinner from time to time, but he was the one who did most of the cooking. Over time, eventually, I ceded the kitchen to him entirely (except for breakfast--still cereal). I regretted this, a little, since I forgot most of my cooking repertoire, but in retrospect, thinking of all those complicated recipes I followed, I couldn't imagine sparing the time to go through all of that anymore anyway.
Fast forward to January of this year. I began a 6 month sabbatical in Indiana, two states away from home in Pennsylvania. My partner was starting a new job and so was unable to join me. I would be on my own. Maybe I could start cooking again! In any case, the idea that I might be able to jump-start the cooking thing was one of my auxiliary goals for this sabbatical.
Now that the sabbatical is a mere 5 weeks or so from coming to an end, how did this particular aspect go? Not so well. Last night I made only my second dinner since coming to Indiana. It was spaghetti sauce (with spaghetti, obviously). This was not the culinary equivalent of brain surgery. I made enough of it to last for most of the rest of my time here. Why was I so unsuccessful in this goal? Well, these days it's just too easy to eat out. And there were time management issues as well. I'm a slow cook (as my partner is amused to remind me), so cooking consumes time that could be spent doing other work. I'm a little regretful about all the money I spent on prepared food, but I nonetheless enjoyed it. As I say about so much else in my life, maybe I'll have time for cooking when I retire...
And now on the the comments!
From trashablanca:
This isn't one of my usually funny submissions. It's from a fascinating diary by gloiasb entitled Pruitt Igoe Documentary: Myths, ghosts and survivors of a failed urban policy, Got a Grip makes a starkly astute observation.
Form Samer:
I'm reminded of Keith Olbermann's comment on "My Box in a Box": "We haven't bleeped it, mostly because we couldn't really figure out how, and that's a sign of good satire." In other words, I have no idea how to properly describe this comment by joynow, and leave it to you, although you might want to note it's definitely NSFW. From mahakali overdrive's recommended diary Enough is enough: Adios to all bigots & homophobes.
From your humble diarist:
bythesea starts a thread with an interesting account of the various views of the Rapture by Evangelicals, but then diarist Clytemnestra tells all later in the thread. In her recommended diary What you need to know and do for Saturday "Rapture Day"
Also on the topic of the Rapture was this comment by enhydra lutris, from whoknu's recommended diary #sekritarmy judgement (pooties, woozles and critters)
gchaucer2 posted this comment on the history of efforts of water control in the Mississippi Valley in Stranded Wind's recommended diary Morganza Spillway Maps & More.