Some Random Thoughts on Cooking

I enjoy cooking. Fortunately, I learned how to cook from an expert: my Grandma Rose who in her youth earned a living baking pies at restaurants as she worked her way West from Illinois. After she married my Grandpa Lloyd she cooked for all their ranch hands too, until the ranch was sold and they moved to town. She had a number of classic recipes in her repertoire, all of which I enjoyed while growing up and eventually learned to make myself.

Grandma didn’t normally cook from recipes, but from memory and her own idea of what needed to go into a specific dish, and needless to say, everything was wonderful. Unlike me, I cannot remember Grandma ever having a kitchen disaster. In contrast, my Mom never learned to cook at home growing up, so it was up to Grandma to teach her after she married my Dad. Personally, I don’t think it really took, because Mom couldn’t ever really cook the way Grandma did but had to rely on recipes instead. I suppose you could say I’ve found a happy mid-point between the two of them. I will use a recipe as a guide, but I still add ingredients according to my own tastes, so I might throw just about anything in, depending on my whim that day, what I have on hand, and what I think it should taste like.

For instance, I’ve learned that most recipes are too bland for Sam and me. We LIKE spicy food, and food that doesn’t have any flavor is out, out, out! If a recipe calls for two cloves of garlic, for example, I will usually at least double and most likely triple the amount. Oregano? By the handful please—and I CAN add handfuls of dried herbs quite easily, because I grow my own. It irks me to ever have to buy certain food items at the store (Oh please! A small handful of herbs for $2.50-$5, depending on what it is? I can buy a plant for that amount at the local nursery and then have all I want later on. If I buy a packet of seeds, I can have oodles.). Now, I realize many folks live in apartments and don’t have a whole back yard of raised beds like I do, but you can grow salad vegetables, such as lettuce, radishes, scallions, and tomatoes, plus most of the herbs you normally need for cooking in a few containers on your apartment balcony. I’ve even done it myself in the past. Want bay leaves? Buy a sprig in a container at your local nursery for not much more than the cost of a jar of dried bay at the grocery store, and you’ll have all you ever need for the picking.

Today I made lasagna for dinner. It seemed like a good choice, since it was a bit cold and rainy earlier. I had some oven-ready Ronzini lasagna pasta in the pantry and all the cheeses needed in the fridge, so I bought a package of sweet Italian sausage at the store (on the way home from the stable) and was able to put it together in pretty short order.

Funny though how I can never get as many layers as the lasagna recipes tell you, and I honestly don’t know how they do it. I mean, MY sauce has chunks of sausage in it, so I can’t make really thin layers. I will maybe get two layers of everything in the pan (yup, an ordinary 9” x 13” x 2” pan), and then I’m out of ingredients. Even if I had more, any more layers would overfill the pan. I try to make the layers of ricotta thin, too, but without success. You HAVE to spread a certain amount of each ingredient over the previous one to make up a layer. Frankly, I’ve stopped worrying about it. My lasagna tastes great, and it doesn’t matter how many layers there are.

Then there’s guacamole. I tried making it from cookbook recipes, but it always seemed to lack something, and I refuse to make it from a commercial mix or buy the ready-made stuff. My big breakthrough came when I found a cookbook put out by the Rosa’s Mexican Restaurant folks (http://www.amazon.com/Rosas-Mexican-Table-Roberto-Santibanez/dp/1579653243). They did some research to learn what their customers preferred and now use only SIX (!) basic ingredients in their recipe (pp. 73-75), not 15, and it tastes great. What this taught me is that there is no substitute for research, and simpler is usually better than throwing in the kitchen sink.

If you’re pressed for time, using mixes can be a great time saver, but I got tired of paying through the nose for salt and preservatives, so I make my own now. Recipes can easily be found for whatever you want on the Internet, though you’ll need to try them to see if they work for you. Nearly all of the ones I’ve found use way too much salt, for instance, so I only add one teaspoon or even half of that when a tablespoon is called for. Homemade taco seasoning mix is super easy and much less expensive than buying the commercial ones—and as I mentioned, no preservatives. What about biscuit mix? How about salad dressing mixes? I’ve used Good Seasons Italian dressing mix for most of my life, but now it costs somewhere in excess of $2/package, and I refuse to pay that much for salt, preservatives, and a little dab of dried herbs. What about other foods, such as tortillas? Do you have any idea how EASY they are to make? And, they taste better too! Just spend a little time on your days off whipping up whatever convenience foods you might need the following week, and they work just as well as the ones you buy from the store, sans preservatives, extra salt, and high fructose corn syrup (all of which are in nearly everything these days and of questionable nutritional value—or worse). You can then store whatever you make in the refrigerator or freezer until needed. You might have to sacrifice some TV time, but I guarantee it will be time well spent, and so satisfying, since YOU made it and it’s better food.

We are so fortunate nowadays. Grandma didn’t have a garden, though my Mom did, and had to rely on ingredients purchased at the supermarket. She didn’t make everything from scratch though either, which I learned after trying to bake my first lemon meringue pie. I made it using a recipe I found in a Farm Journal Pie Cookbook, which you would think would be pretty reliable. It was a disaster. After our guests went home (Sam’s parents), I called Grandma in tears, explaining how I’d tried to make the pie from scratch. I won’t ever forget what she told me. “Oh, I NEVER make them from scratch—I use lemon pudding and pie filling.” Live and learn! Since then, I too have ALWAYS used pudding mix (yes, you can make that one too). After all, Grandma was the expert.

Here’s the recipe I use for taco seasoning mix, which I adapted from one I found online, probably at either Cooks.com or AllRecipes.com:

Taco Seasoning Mix

¼ cup dried minced onion
¼ cup chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon dried minced garlic (or garlic powder)
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 teaspoons beef bouillon granules
1½ teaspoons dried oregano

Mix the above ingredients together in a small bowl and store in an air-tight container. To use: Brown 1 lb. ground beef (or warm up an equal amount of cooked, shredded chicken breast) in a skillet, then add 1/3 cup water and 3 tablespoons of the mix. Cook until water evaporates and serve.

Enjoy!