Do you like to cook?

I love to cook for guests, not so much for myself. I left home as a young teenager, so I had to learn to cook; luckily I found Julia Child’s Art of French Cooking, and learned to cook by cooking my way through it.

I love cooking. I am no chef and pretty much wing it on everything but it’s alot of fun imo.

Yes, I like to cook. I cook with a cookbook, but I also wing it. I cook a lot of wild game and gather mushrooms and wild fruits and vegetables. I am pretty much self taught.

I cook 90% of my meat and about half my veggies on my Weber grill or smoker.

I like cooking only if I know exactly what to do and I can’t deviate at all or bad things happen.

I sure don’t! People flee my house when I cook! LOL
I can follow a recipe,but why bother?lol

Yes I love it, I taught my self mostly. It’s very therapeutic. But I can’t eat the foods I like to cook! Well most of them. But my favourite foods to cook are Indian and Italian.

I love it as a teenager, but didn’t care for it during my mothering days, because I had to cook. It was like any other job a working mother has. But now, I am getting back into it. Trying all kinds of new things. I found that when it is just you and your husband, you can eat like an expensive restaurant
serves, for ¼ the cost. And you can season it your way. I even have an herb garden now. Really fun.

I love it. I will use a cookbook, but sometimes I like to create different dishes on my own. Living alone, however, I don’t get to do much cooking. I am on the road alot, but when I do get a chance, I will invite friends or family over to enjoy (I hope) my cooking.

@Just_Justine I like cooking American foods and some Mexican. Funny thing, my meat loaf seems to be a favorite with friends and family. I love the challenge of cooking recipes I have never cooked before, for big holiday dinners. My husband likes to help me. He makes a great fresh cranberry sauce.

I like to cook, I love to bake. And it is fun trying new things and having them turn out. I often tweak recipes if I’m using one. I know I don’t like caraway in anything, for example , nor parsley, nor coriander/cilantro. And, of course, the baking is too fattening so has to be special occassions- Bunny cake for Easter, almond pound cake shaped into a bunny’ ummm, and buttery scalloped potatoes. maybe I should go get an apple

@Rangie mexican sounds great. I have only ever eaten nachos which is Mexican right? I love hot food with chilli’s in it. You guys speak a lot of meat loaf, I don’t think we have heard of it much around SA.

I do most of the cooking in our household – have done for more than twenty years. As a writer journalist who has tele-commuted whenever possible (I work from a home office two or three days per week) I am better suited than my wife. I learned to cook while working my way through various degrees – usually I worked behind a bar, drove a taxi or as a supper chef. I once worked for a brilliant French chef who taught me a lot – the first thing was not to use cookbooks. You use your sense of smell and taste and culinary experience even when creating a new dish.

I enjoy cooking, my wife appreciates the convenience. (She is a career woman who already works very hard – she doesn’t need to come home and cook at the end of the day. )

I am also very health conscious, this way we eat what is most nutritious as well as tasty.

@Just_Justine meatloaf is ground meat molded into a loaf and baked. Some people add crackers, or other fillers to extend the meal. You can also add pretty much any seasonings you like to the loaf.

And cold meatloaf sandwiches are the best!!

sounds nice

Boy howdy, do I love to cook. For me, it’s practically a spiritual act. I use ingredients (as opposed to “products”) most of the time, shop from the Farmer’s Market all year ‘round, and have as much of a garden as I can during the local growing season.

I use recipes as suggestions and can’t follow them without alteration, but mostly I like to make dishes by surveying the available ingredients and seeing what they’re “asking” to be made into. (Lately I’ve been a little obsessed with calzone-style sandwiches – I make the dough and fill and bake. A little bit of savory filling can go a long way.) I’m also pretty darn good at omelets, soups, roast chicken and stuffing, and homemade pasta with homemade sauce.

My grandma taught me a little about cooking, just some basics (“this is a spatula, this is how to make crepes”) but I learned more while working at the natural food store – they had classes and such for the employees so we could better hawk the products. Heck, I even picked up cooking skills at a “survival” weekend by digging and cooking in a pit oven. Everything is a learning opportunity if you do it right.

I love to cook, though I’ll admit I haven’t done it that much. Most of the time’s I’ve done it, I’ve followed cookbooks or family recipes. It’s a lot of fun and I do love to do it. Soon I plan on living in a house with several other people (during college) and I would love to have the opportunity to cook, especially for other people. My parents taught me everything I know; they cook all the time and did so all throughout my childhood.

@faye your funny, I don’t do much baking myself..diabetic. However, I love pastries. When my kids were young I use to make their favorite cake for special occasions. It was a prune cake. Spice cake with cooked, cut up prunes all throughout the cake (makes it really moist). Then I would make a butter cream frosting with cooked prunes beat well into the butter cream. I know it probably sounds awful, but even their friends loved it.

@DominicX good luck with your cooking for your friends and college. Did you know men are generally better cooks than women per capita. That is probably because most women have to cook rather than get to cook when they want. There for men seem to take more pride in their cooking. Whereas women just want to get it done and on the table.

@laureth That s great that you had so many sources of learning. You say you can’t stick with a recipe as written. That is a show of confidence in what you do. Good for you. You know one thing I like to do, if and when I go out to dinner. If I run across something that is just wonderful to eat, I like to try to figure out the seasonings and all of the ingrediences. Then go home and try to copy it. I have had a few successes. Steak ala Chicana Burritos is the best one I have ever done.
My mother never cooked Mexican, Italian, Chinese or any other thing except American. She was a working mom so it was, get it on the table as quickly as possible.

I like to bake more than cook. I usually wing it because no one ever really “taught” me. Its usually pretty easy. Cooking can’t really be messed up too badly. Its just food! ;)

@Just_Justine yes meat loaf is made from ground beef. My meatloaf is like juicy Italian meat balls. In fact the next day I make spaghetti and meatballs. I use my melon baller and scoop out meatloaf and put it in the sauce. After all it is the same exact way I make meatballs.
You should try it sometime.
If you like I can send you the recipe.
Pardon my ignorance but, where are you from? What does SA stand for?

i do when i’m relaxed.

I love to cook. I love to cook for my boyfriend. I picked up some things from my dad, but mainly cookbooks and cookery programmes.

I do like to cook. I’m not great, and I wish I were better. I love to grill up a mean burger too.

I like when people cook for me. :)

nope

@neverawake What do you mean nope? Cooking is a creative way of expressing yourself. Have you ever tried? You might like it, and so might those who eat the food you prepare.

@justn , well most of us are not chefs. But it is still fun to be creative, and whom ever we are cooking for likes it, we are home free. The fun is trying something new to see how we are doing. If they don’t like, I say tough, cook it yourself.

@justn I don’t think any of us are great, but we do the best we can, right? If we want to, we can expand our menus by just doing it. The worst that can happen is it will not be great. So give them some salt and pepper and keep smiling. Actually, I like to try absolutely new recipes at big holiday dinners. It is fun to try something new on a lot of people, because you can get a lot of feed back, and so far I have hit a home run. However, you can’t take the feed back personally. Do you want to know why? Because, you took the time to prepare the meal, THEY didn’t. I say do your best and be proud of what you have created.

@Rangie I’m loving your cooking philosophy. Good stuff man. I’ve definitely had my flops, but my family is usually supportive (like you said, because I cooked the meal). I really need to ‘get out there’ and experiment more.

@justn , good for you. The worst that can happen is it won’t turn out. I just raise my hands up and say to myself, Oh Well. And that is that. Then I keep trying. I am so proud of the fact that I don’t let a flop destroy my efforts to keep going. Just keep trying new things and you are automatically a success. I love your attitude.