two days in a row, omg

[topaz119]

fridayfive

As seen on misbegotten and jenab

Cooking!

How do you feel about cooking?
It is my sole domestic talent and also a stress-reliever that sometimes is the major thing keeping me sane. (Or, possibly contributing to my insanity, as I didn't even hesitate to make Beef Wellington for Christmas dinner this year despite still having a lingering fever and weirdness from the cut that got infected.)

How often do you cook a meal (from mostly fresh ingredients, not something ready-assembled that you just heat)?
I usually cook something 3-4 nights per week and then clear out the leftovers another 1-2 days + lunches. We try to get something semi-nice out once a week or so, but there is definitely a stash of pizzas and bagel bites and random bits from Trader Joe's in the freezer for when I can't even scramble an egg or two.

How many people do you usually cook for, when you cook?
Anywhere from 3 - 10, depending on who's home from school, whose friends are hanging around, and what I'm making. Most often these days, 4, but it's spring break season, so that number varies widely. (And then there's Beach Week, which is 18-24.)

Do you have a favourite recipe book or chef?
I have so many cookbooks, y'all. So. Many. (I justify them by using my math: 1 meal from them recoups the cost when measured against feeding the House of Boys takeout.) I'm going to have to go with a bulleted list here.

The first one I bought with my own money was The Silver Palate (tres 80s chic, y'all, you don't even know.)

The Joy of Cooking, which is what everyone told aspiring cooks in the 1970s/80s to get, was a complete disaster. Nothing I made from that ever worked right.

I have a couple of Julia Child's later books, for when I want to throw down with cassoulet or chocolate mousse (let me tell you, JC *knows* how to do chocolate mousse.)

I had a Natalie Dupree stage when I first moved to the South, and then went through the same thing with Mark Bittman, and I still cook from the original edition of Cook's Illustrated The Best Recipe.

I have all of my grandmother's (hand-written!) recipe cards, including all the cookies she baked for the holidays (seriously, she'd send out thousands and thousands) and some spectacular 50s era casseroles, plus recipes from her older sister, the kind that start with Take 10 pounds of flour, because that's how little old Italian ladies bake.

Lately, I've had fun with Chrissy Teigen's second book and whichever of the Barefoot Contessa books I grab as I go out of the library.


Kitchen tools: use the fewest possible or gadgets are your friend?
I go through stages where I do everything with a paring knife and a KitchenAid stand mixer, but then I get antsy and out comes the food processor or the pasta machine or the sous vide circulator, so I guess gadgets and I are buddies.