Poll: Cooking

[Phasmal]

Hey, people.

I've got a bit of time off of work so I thought I'd try and cook a bit more, and also my boyfriend's stepdad gave us a pretty big bag of organic potatoes so now I have to cook a bunch of potatoes before they start going bad.

Today I'm trying to make home-made chips in the oven, this is my second attempt and every single time they stick to the baking tray. Last time I used too much oil and they burnt a bit, but they were still kinda nice.

To be honest I like cooking, but I like cooking things I already know how to cook, and this isn't one of them.

EDIT: Oh, and to answer my poll, my cooking is generally good. I make a pretty good lasagne.

So, how are you at cooking? Do you cook much? Have any disaster cooking stories or something you cook awesomely? Let me know.
(And if anyone has any idea how I can stop these freaking potatoes from sticking every damn time I would appreciate it).

 

[viscomica]

I think I'm pretty good.
I like trying to cook new things. I've recently made goulash for my boyfriend and tomorrow I'll be making tacos for my family.
That being said, it's a constant trial and error and a lot of times things don't turn out perfect.

 

[Abbyka]

I'm good. But my husband tends to do all the cooking now because he likes to add stuff to my usual recipes that makes it overly complicated. I basically told him years ago that if he wanted all this extra stuff in it he'll have to cook it himself. Admittedly some of what he does tastes better but I don't like cooking. Adding steps to the process is frustrating so I refuse to change my recipes. lol Plus for a while while I was on a diet I ate something entirely different than what my family eats because what my family eats is way too unhealthy if you plan on losing weight.

 

[sky14kemea]

I'm alright. I'm decent enough to cook for myself at least. I just rarely do because of time/effort.

I sometimes experiment which is why I only feel comfortable cooking for myself. But I've done Christmas dinners before for friends so I can't be that bad a cook.

 

[Artina89]

I'm alright. I wouldn't say I was fantastic, but I think its quite palatable.

 

[Sleepy Sol]

I don't really actually cook for myself yet.

Like, as in actually cook that isn't "microwaving stuff" cook. I'd love to learn.

 

[davidmc1158_v1legacy]

I consider myself a functional cook. I use recipes and follow them pretty much to the letter (except perhaps for adding garlic to everything). I won't experiment with adding anything unorthodox to something until I've made that particular something several times and am comfortable with it.

I've been told by my friends that my soups are really good. They seem to be my 'thing'.

 

[JohnZ117]

I live alone and on a low budget, so I have to cook. Fortunately, not only do I enjoy cooking, but what I make usually comes out quite well, barring a few failed experiments. Unfortunately, this has lead me to want to experiment further than my budgets, financial and temporal, allow.

Btw, I regularly cook pasta, rice, and some dishes that could be called Tex-Mex(I LOVE spicy food). I have succeeded many times in making pancakes and waffles, and 2 cakes not from mix sets, one a bundt I made as a Christmas present to the rest of my immediate family.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Somewhat good. I can make fried/ boil rice, noodles and veggie, my main food sources during uni but when it come to the meat I pretty much rely on my dad cooked meat which I just microwave or added onto the fried rice.

I mean sure my dad did show me how he savour the meat but I have not once try it out myself and I know it's a lengthly process to do so.

 

[RedDeadFred]

I'm not sure how it would be considered. I cook what I like, and what is fairly easy. I don't cook a huge variety of things, but what I do cook, I cook quite well.

I sort of pride myself on my salmon steaks and my spaghetti sauce. Not exactly hard things to do well, but I love them.

 

[Steve Waltz]

I?m a good cook for the most part. The problem is that I live alone with not a lot of money, so I don?t have the funds to spend on extra ingredients to make my meals taste really good. Like, when I make curry, it?s just the bare necessities: curry blocks, butter, water/milk, rice, and chicken. I don?t have the extra money to put in the good stuff like onions, potatoes, peppers, and the like. So, in the end, my daily meals end up just tasting average because I?m always short on ingredients.

 

[Teoes]

I'm decent and I loooooooove cooking. Chuck in some booze and music/YouTube Watch Later list and I am golden. Can't always be arsed cooking but get me going and all's good. I can turn my hand to most things but am generally most comfortable following recipes.

I share the cooking load pretty equally with the missus and let's be fair/honest: she's the one that's going to overheat the oil, then not watch the onions and burn things while the pasta is on way too early. When she's not making an arse of it (love you, baby!) she's just as solid as I am. We eat well in our house, as does anyone who comes to visit.

/ego

 

[Raggedstar]

Not great. I'm one of those people who could set soup on fire if I put my mind to it. Still learning.

I can make simple things, like roasted potatoes, salmon, pasta, and some kind of Greek lemon chicken noodle soup (and omg is that soup AWESOME). I also can be trusted to make banana bread/muffins that won't kill anyone. So far, I also haven't given myself food poisoning, so that's a plus. Burned myself a few times though, but nothing major. Tried to make cheesecake once and, well, it didn't go entirely as planned. Pretty cursed when it comes to grilled cheese sandwiches too, but getting better.

Beyond that, I don't do a lot of cooking (I make myself salads regularly, but that's not actual "cooking"). My tastes are pretty simple (also, fuck onions. I hate onions, so that makes my dishes pretty limited), so I can just grab random things seemingly across the food groups and prep them on a plate. I'm starting slow, trying to add a little more to my arsenal as I'm alone for extended periods. Hoping to move onto cooking steaks in the pan next time. Or maybe pizza? Something fun.

 

[Twintix]

Not too shabby, I think.

I've always been interested in cooking, and I even wanted to be a chef when I was a kid. The first meal I ever made by myself wasn't that exciting, though: Meatballs and ketchup on toast. But to 7-year old me, it was amazing: It was the first time I used the stove all by myself.

I'm kinda good at improvising, I think. If I'm missing an ingredient or if something goes wrong, I can usually fix the mistake or replace the ingredient. Like today: I was going to make salmon burgers, but I accidentally cooked the salmon in the oven when I only wanted to defrost it a little. Not stuff you can make patties of. So instead, I chopped it up, made a quick teriyaki-like sauce and marinated the salmon in that. Lacking in seasoning aside, it worked quite well. Not to mention the various chicken stews I've improvised. (One of them: Chicken, créme fraîche, balsamic vinegar and parmesan cheese. Delicious and goes well with pasta.)

I'm a really good baker, though. It's really one of my strong suits, I feel. There's less room for experimentation, since baking is more of a science and easier to get wrong, but I've been baking since I was little and I've gotten a good grip on it. (Switching the type of sugar the recipe calls for usually works, though) I can pretty much bake a sponge cake blindfolded.

 

[Evil Moo]

I think my cooking is passable depending on how clear/reliable the recipe is.

That said, I dislike the process of cooking enough that I'd rather avoid it if at all possible, even if I was exceptional at it. If it takes me longer to prepare a meal than to eat it, I am going to be unhappy with the situation. It is just a chore to me and the results are almost never worth the time and effort involved.

 

[Michel Henzel]

My cooking is basic level at best. Since I live by myself I really don't feel the urge to make something that would take me more then 5-10 min. Half the time I don't even bother with cooking and just thrown something in the microwave and be done with it. When I still lived at home I did not mind doing more elaborate dishes, and for awhile I still cooked those same things for myself, but after some time I just no longer felt the urge to do so.

 

[teqrevisited]

I'm not a bad cook.

I did almost set fire to the first appliance I ever used though. A very young self decided that bread would probably toast just fine in the microwave. It did no such thing and the charred mess that came out of the microwave filled the house with the smell of burning for hours afterwards.

Since then I've not done anything too adventurous, but a lot of people seem to really enjoy my chili and curry sauces specifically.

 

[Recusant]

I'm pretty basic, but decent enough at it. Not what you'd call "good", but no one's died (though I am mostly cooking just for myself). Two tips:
1. Line the pan with foil. Most of the time, all you'll have to do afterward is remove and toss out the foil; it makes cleanup a breeze.
2. Issues of social propriety aside (again, mostly cooking for myself) the only difference between a side dish and an entree is quantity.