Saturday, December 3, 2011

Should I Learn to Cook?

So I can't cook. AT ALL. This is what I can do in the kitchen: scramble eggs. boil pasta. make tomato sauce. toss a salad. Also, I can make coffee. I have occasionally ventured on more ambitious projects (I have made noodle soup before, for instance, which means boiling pasta in chicken broth and adding some carrots), but usually they don't turn out well (like the infamous incident in which I attempted to make pesto but misunderstood B's directions of 1-2 cloves of garlic for 1-2 heads of garlic because I didn't know what a clove was).

This has never bothered me, because my mother (and sister) can't cook either. My dad always made all the food (baked his own bread, homemade applesauce/chili/peanut butter etc.) and B is also a really good cook. However, now that I'm a housewife, while B works 12+ hour days on a regular basis, it seems sort of ridiculous that I can't cook (since honestly cooking dinner usually takes B at least an hour).

I asked B what he thought. He said that our marriage was equivalent to a small company, and so I should focus on acquiring skills which the company lacked. Since he already knows how to cook, he thought it was inefficient for me to learn as well. Rather, I should focus on something like Korean (so I could translate data for him). This is what you get when you ask an economist something.

But I am not so sure, especially since little R needs to be fed all the time now (she eats 3 meals a day at this point). I worry that I am not feeding her a proper diet (ie enough fruits and vegetables). Also, honestly it would help my weight loss efforts if I ate a better diet (steering away from bread and mayo meals). And B usually only has time to cook dinner.

So I am considering trying to learn how to cook (at least simple vegetable dishes, no need to get fancy). However, it's pretty daunting and I have no idea where/how to start. I wish I lived in Chicago so I could join That Wife's cooking club!

Progress:
--Exercise: 1 hour at the gym.
--Diet: Breakfast: Vegetable (cabbage and mushroom) buns; Lunch: Bread with goat cheese, olive oil and tomato; Dinner: Tortillas with pork and tomato mash, lettuce and tomato; Snack: Frappucino.
--Other: Did not drink 8 glasses water; one frappucino.

2 comments:

  1. ONly if you want to :) I think it is actually really relaxing and fun, but I learned that BEFORE I had a baby - it hasn't been relaxing since ;)

    I'll recommend epicurious.com and the foodnetwork.com. Only choose recipes with 4-5 stars - pick ones with easy steps and get a GREAT knife.

    If you have a good knife it will be easy (I'd recommend a japanese steel knife) to do prep and a good recipe won't fail you. Be sure to read the reviews as they sometimes have good tips.

    I've posted some super easy reciepes on my blog that are amazing - thomas keller's favorite roast chicken is one...along with roasting broccoli, cauliflower, or asparagus with salt, pepper, and vegi oil.

    But wait, do you have a stove or oven?

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  2. We have a stove but no oven; they don't come standard with apartments here because Chinese cooking doesn't use them.

    So I can't roast anything. We do have a wok though.

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