Sunday stealing

 

 

Hi! I'm your host Bev Sykes of the blog "Funny the World". . Welcome to Sunday Stealing. This feature originated and published on WTIT: The Blog. Here we will steal all types of questions from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent questions. Cheers to all of us thieves!

 

  

From Food Questions

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1.  How often do you make food and eat it? 

I prepare food at least once a day, usually 2-3 times every day.

2.  Do you consider toasting bread, preparing instant noodles, or boiling an egg to be cooking? Why or why not?

"Cooking" is defined as the practice or skill of preparing food by combining, mixing, and heating ingredients. Boiling an egg or toasting a piece of bread  (barely) meets the definition of cooking. And the skills required to boil an egg are skills you also need for a more elaborate dish.  I suppose throwing a frozen dinner in the microwave or reheating leftovers technically meets the definition, but I don't consider that to be "cooking" in a broader sense.

3.  What’s your favorite dish to make?  

Current favorite?  Roasted brussel sprouts.  I use a little olive oil and some salt and then just let them get brown and crispy in the oven.

4.  Cooking or baking: what’s more fun? What’s more difficult? 

Baking is an exact science, cooking is far more forgiving.  I gave up baking a long time ago because my sister is so good at it...but I have been experimenting with it again. 

5.  Who did most of the cooking in your house when you were growing up?

My mother was a stay-at-home mom for most of my childhood, so she did the cooking.  She did well, but she did not enjoy cooking.  

Later, when my father retired, he started to do all the cooking in that house because he actually enjoyed it. Eventually my sister took over my parents' kitchen.

6.  How have you learned the cooking skills that you have?

Mostly from my mother, and from trial and error.

7.   Have you ever taken a cooking course? If so, what did you learn? If not, would you like to do one? What would you like to learn?

Other than home economics in junior high, no, I have not taken a cooking class.  

8.   Have you tried cooking food from another culture? What did you prepare? How was it? 

I think the foods I prepare have been absorbed from other cultures and have become "American".  Are you really making Italian food if you make spaghetti marinara?  Tacos are Mexican?  A simple stir fry is Chinese?  See what I mean?  

Now my father, when he retired, bought a wok and took a Chinese cooking class.  He'd buy authentic ingredients in the Asian markets in Queens, and he'd prepare things that were just like the dishes we'd get in the restaurant.  It was wonderful.  

9.   Is it cost-effective to do your own cooking? Can you save money by cooking?

 

Pre-pandemic I worked in Manhattan and bought my lunch every day.  Often bought dinner, too, because I was tired from the long commute. I work from home now and prepare more of my meals at home, and yes, I have saved a lot of money.

10.  Would you rather do the cooking or do the washing up afterwards?

The fact that my apartment has a dishwasher delights me no end, I am just sorry that my pots and pans need to be washed by hand.  I'd much rather cook than clean up.

11.  Do you use recipes to cook? If so, where do you get the best recipes? Do you get them from friends, family, online, or from cookbooks?

Most of the time I cook the things I always make, so no recipe needed.  Lately, though, I've been trying recipes I find online.

12.  Have you ever tried to prepare some food and just totally ruined it? What happened?

I was making  spaghetti with meat sauce, a dish I have made often, but burned the meat so badly that I set off the smoke detector.  

13. Do you prefer cooking at home or eating out at a restaurant? Why?

I enjoy both.  

14. Is cooking a social activity for you? Do you like to do it with other people, or do your prefer to do it alone?

Trying to cook together is a good way to start an argument.

15. Do you have a lot of cooking equipment? How often do you use it all? Do you have any pieces of equipment that you rarely ever use?

I have a small apartment.  My kitchen is relatively well-equipped but I don't have room for a lot of gadgets that I will only use once or twice.