Beech Tree News Network

Carrie Bradshaw said, “I’m not a chef. I’m just someone who likes to eat.” I’m not a chef either. I like to cook, but I’m not a perfect cook. I’ve made many, many cooking mistakes over the years.  Thinking about my cooking experiences, I asked friends and family: “Do you like to cook? What’s your favorite go-to recipe? Have you had any memorable mishaps in the kitchen?” Their responses are listed below.

-I love to cook! I am not a baker though. My quickest go-to recipe is Italian roast. It will melt in your mouth. You can eat it as sandwiches or an entrée. When I was still in high school, I was going to make a chocolate éclair dessert to go to my brother’s blue and gold Boy Scout banquet. I didn’t use instant pudding and when it was cut into, it ran like a river! But that was many moons ago, and I have grown in my cooking.

-Yes, I like to cook when family is coming – motivates me. My mishaps include leaving out an ingredient, forgetting something in the oven, and buying ahead then the food going bad before I cook it. All the normal things!

-My entire kitchen experience can be summed up as a mishap. Until her death, my grandma cooked for our family, several meals a week, and we would eat out the others. She always told me to go play with the kids or rest whenever she was cooking, so I never learned. Now there’s a lot of trial and error, but I figure she’s in Heaven cheering me on, and probably shaking her head, amused or dismayed on occasion.

-No, and after 50 years I resent that I have to cook most days. My memorable mishap was making gravy as a kid for family because mom was at work. I thought you kept adding flour until it got thick. I made some beautiful flour paste for the potatoes. My dad just raised his eyebrows.

-At times I love to cook! I don’t like being in a rush. I have a few go-to recipes: main dishes and desserts. Once I was rushing making cornbread. I emptied the cornbread on a plate, turned to set the iron skillet down, and dropped it. It hit my big toe, didn’t break it. But I had a big, black toe for a while!

-I love to cook. My go-to recipes are family heirloom recipes from my mother and former mother-in-law. All the Christmas candies that I make came from them. I’m not an excellent baker like my daughter, but home cooking, comfort foods, and candies are my specialties.

-I love to cook for family and friends. My go-to family fav is baked beans, “cowboy beans” – a mixture of canned baked beans with maple, brown sugar, molasses to taste, and hamburger meat. I also like peanut butter sheet cake. Oh, my! The most recent cooking mishap was this year with my daughter who lives out of state. She has traditional Christmas candy making down, but tried peanut butter fudge this year. She texted me from the grocery, needing ingredients, so that’s all I gave her. She never called back for theinstructions. She did not cook it! However, she did make two batches later – which she did cook!

-I do like to cook, but my husband is much better at it than I am. If you’re looking for something like spaghetti or tacos though, I’m your girl. The worst thing that ever happened to me in the kitchen was dropping the pumpkin roll on the floor that I had just taken out of the oven the night before Thanksgiving.

-I love to cook and bake, but I mess up all the time. I am constantly having mishaps in the kitchen, and the most recent was when I ran out of baking chocolate last week. I was making peanut butter balls. I had made three batches and ran out of the chocolate, and I thought I would just melt chocolate chips and cover the rest of my peanut butter balls with that. Oh my, those did not get hard like they were supposed to – big waste!

The following quote made me smile: “Many people have eaten my food and gone on to lead normal lives”

(80+ Funny Cooking Quotes –). At times, cooking can be an experiment, and new recipes may be challenging. Nonetheless, cooking is a necessary task at my house, so I’m grateful I enjoy it.