(Week 27) Recipes May Just Be the Scapegoat for All Our Cooking Idiocies

To me, the sign of an experienced kitcheneer is someone who is able to cook freely, enjoying each ingredient along the way, without darting back to the recipe after each move for self affirmation.  Thus, I know we are not there yet.    Mr. and I are more like deer caught in headlights, fixated on the steps in front of us, too stunned to look away and think for ourselves.  Thank goodness our cooking venture is only half complete because we could defiantly use some continued practice!

Our cooking journey has proven itself to be messy, annoying, costly, and deceptive.  But like a parent’s affection for their children, some how I still love cooking and I’m not ready to give up on it.  More accurately, I am not ready to give up on Mr. & I and a little belief that someday we will just “get it!”

The past twenty six weeks have taught me that we may be going about recipes the wrong way.  I can’t say for sure whether it is us abusing the recipes; or the recipes abusing us, but what I do know is that the recipes tend to scare Mr. & I in to focusing on each step like it’s its own entity.   We really should be reading through the entire thing and then figuring out the smartest way to execute dinner.  Instead, we find ourselves diving in with reckless abandon, thinking that the recipe will guide us.  Au contraire, when someone is cooking strictly from a recipe, it can actually be a recipe for disaster!

Here’s the pop-in-the-chops though;  In theory I may understand this, but I still feel the presure to use a recipe because I am inexperienced.  It’s a viscious cycle that I am hoping we can put an end to; feeling like we have to use a recipe–using a recipe–doing stupid things to follow the recipe. Yuck!  Sorry Mrs. Rombauer, but sometimes it’s the recipes that take the joy out of cooking.

I find myself buying $15 jars of spice for a pinch of an ingredient because I fear that leaving it out may ruin dinner.   Or,  I will ask Mr. to run to the store to buy that one unnecessary ingredient that we don’t have at home just because it is in the recipe.  Better still, is when we get elbow deep in a recipe and later read (half way down the recipe, hidden in size 8 font) that it has to set for 4 hours—or in Mr.’s beer instance-an extra TWO WEEKS!;)  It’s just plain silly.  Recipes should not control us, and if we really understood cooking, they wouldn’t.

This week, like may others, included a lot of bumping around in the kitchen, doing things in a less-than-efficient order because everything hadn’t been thought out beforehand.  Read below for recipes like Roasted Tomato and Goat Cheese Baguettes with Parsley Aioli and make your own Pita Chips.  Then follow my freestyle attempt at Grilled Chicken and Peach Spinach Salad with Sherry Vinaigrette, as we hijack the necessary recipes from a pricey cooking guide.

By the end of the fifty two weeks I hope to have exposed Mr. and I, by self-force and readership, to experiment with enough ingredients and cooking styles that we have a solid foundtion in the basics. Once we are experienced in the kitchen, we will no longer be bound by the words on the page.  Unlike those of us who still follow recipes like  a navigation system–even when that means ending up in a murky swamp, real kitchen-talent sees the recipe as a map, and they understand that there may be a smarter way to get to where they want to go.

I hope that the next few months is enough time to get us there because freestyle cooking is when things really get funky.  Watch out world, Mr. and Mrs. may just bust a move.

Recipes and Reviews:

I am trying something new this week.  I was too cheap to buy Cooking Light‘s Five Ingredient, 15 Minute Cooking Special Recipe Edition ($15!) from Barnes & Noble to get the recipes I wanted to make, and they weren’t offered online… instead we snapped photos of the recipes on Mr.’s I-phone and used those to cook from.  Scroll over the photo for the name of the recipe, then click on the photo for the recipe.  They will enlarge when you click on them. In your face overpriced cooking magazine!

Roasted Tomato and Goat Cheese Baguettes with Parsley Aioli:  A-, Defiantly a good sandwich for lunch or dinner.  Even without meat it was still a hearty sandwich.  We made the Parsley Aioli in our mini food processor with was very quick and easy.  The entire dish takes about 15 minutes.  I might suggest using a little less than the recommended parsley.  It was good, but it was a lot of one flavor.

Pita Chips: A, Gotta like this guy.  We made ours with whole grain pitas-yum.  You could also make a sweet treat by subbing in cinnamon and sugar.  Make sure to open the pitas so that the two sides are not together.  Having the halves separated makes them cook more evenly and crunchy.  Keep an eye on these while they cook. The recommended cooking time on the recipe was a little too long.  At $4 a bag for Stacey’s Pita Chips vs. $2.50 for the pitas to make this recipe + cook time + clean up, the better deal really just depends on the day.

Grilled Chicken and Peach Spinach Salad with Sherry Vinaigrette:  B-,  For this recipe I did actually try a little freestyle cooking.  I refused to buy everything and wanted to use what I had.  I used romaine lettuce, chicken, canned-drained peaches, and sunflower seeds.  The dressing was made from a peach vinegar, EVOO, and ground pepper.  Later, I felt it rated at a B because it tasted more flavorful the second day, after the salad leftovers had marinated in the dressing.