Food for Thought

Apparently, I can feed people. I'm not that experienced at cooking an actual meal for anyone other than myself, but you won't go hungry at my house. I get this from my mom. Once, while I was in college, a friend commented that my mom made sure that we always had enough to eat. His girlfriend asked why she didn't know this. Simple: she was never there at meal times. Another example is when Robomarkov looked into my parents' refrigerator and said, "I've never seen a fridge that full before."

When I moved out on my own, I figured I'd start learning how to cook something basic. I like chocolate chip cookies, so I made them for myself. Then I shared them with friends and coworkers. Then I branched out with different flavors of cookies. None of them has turned out badly. Now I'm known as "the guy with the cookies" at the gym.

I haven't tried many other desserts. I made lemonade icebox pie one year, and the cranberry pecan pie recipe I found turned out really good. I've seen fancy cake pans in catalogs, and I'd like to be able to make something like that, but it seems a little ambitious. Maybe I'll ask my mom to teach me how she makes her famous angel food cake first.

I volunteered to make mashed potatoes at our office Thanksgiving potluck a couple of years ago. (It's not that hard: boil water; add the box of potato flakes, butter, salt, and milk, et voila.) Everybody liked them, especially Boss. Now I'm stuck making potatoes every year.

I figured I'd experiment with soup one year. We had lots of ham bones left over from a winter holiday party at work. I made bean and ham soup. It was darn good. They haven't served ham since that year. One of these days, I need to walk to the butcher down the street and ask if I could buy some bones from him.

This year, it fell upon me to carve the Thanksgiving turkey because my dad is no longer here. I must say that I did a very good job for a virgin. Bring on the standing rib roast at Christmas!

I asked my mom if I could have the turkey carcass to make soup. I put in enough water to cover the corpse. I boiled it for an hour then removed the skin and bones, sliced the meaty parts, and returned them to the stock, along with veggies and seasoning. It looked good. It smelled good. Most importantly, it tasted good. Well, I froze some and took it home for my mom, but she hasn't sampled it yet. The verdict is out until then.

I bought an Italian cookbook recently. It's called The Silver Spoon, and it's supposed to be the cookbook that Italian women are given when they get married. I found lots of tasty sounding dishes. I even bought some ingredients -- which remain in my pantry. How many months have I had this cookbook without actually using it?

For my housewarming last year, I brought in sandwiches from a local eatery. This year, for Halloween, I cooked kielbasi on a borrowed grill. Maybe next year I'll be good enough to make something that needs plates and utensils!