“No one who cooks, cooks alone. Even at her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past, the advice and menus of cooks present, the wisdom of cookbook writers.” ― Laurie Colwin

This past weeks blog challengers question:


If you could acquire a talent (without any extra effort), what would it be? Why?


So, a few years ago [three actually], my bff, my boyfriend, and one of his friends packed into the G6 and headed up to Canada... to celebrate July 4th :).

While we were up there one night, all in my little tent, the boyfriends friend posed a similar question to the group as well.  My answer: Cooking.

They all laughed because their answers were like, flying or becoming invincible, but I'm totally serious.  I want to be able to cook better, without having to learn anything.  The main reason, I think, is because it's such a good thing to know, how to cook, how to make something taste great, how to make it healthy.  But we're so inundated with ways to not cook [I seriously didn't know one could make mac-n-cheese from scratch until I was in middle school and we made it for Home Ec Class].  Not to mention that knowledge about cooking is SOOO wide.  Like, cooking steak vs making an awesome salad vs making a casserole.  And then the different genres all have different seasons and ways to cook, and things to combine.  It's just so much knowledge to absorb to be good at cooking!

I think also, I want to be good at it, but I haven't really cared about it all that much.  For me it isn't a fun thing to know about or how to do.  Fun is showing off that I can juggle [which I can], or that I can draw a pretty good sketch of your butt [also which I can], or being able to sing the entire song to Baby Got Back.  That's fun and weird and cool.

All that to say, I want to be good at it, so slowly but surely I've been learning more about it, from all sorts of people [Beth and Jill in Columbus each took a night to walk me through some of their favorite dishes a year and a half ago when I visited in the winter].... [and Ronalds Grandma Leota taught me how to make a peacan pie (Ronald's favorite), last winter as well].

And honestly, since we've been trying to pay down debt, cooking has seemed the best entertainment.  When you aren't trying to spend money there are a few things you have to have, and food falls into that category, so why not try to make it fun, right?  So it functions as a necessity and entertainment!

I'm always looking for a new recipe to try, so if you have any, feel free to pass them on :).

-maike rinaye-