Poll: Do you cook?

[Draken Steel]

I burn tea when I make it more often then not, have rendered a great many frozen pizzas inedible, and have even failed ramen noodles several times. I can sorta make hamburgers, if the meat is unfrozen, but they usually end up under cooked on the inside and burned outside. Cooking is not a part of my skill set.

 

[Something Amyss]

I mean, I kjnow how, but I don't like to, nor do I have the patience. So I don't.

 

[bearlotz]

Cooking with anything beyond three or four ingredients is pretty luxurious when you live alone ... luxurious in, say, an utterly wasteful sense of the word.

...huh??

I rank clothes, shoes, entertainment > food. So I don't mind eating nothing but 40 cent lunches and the like if I can afford a pair of fashionable boots or that pretty tunic, or that stylish scarf, or that new gaming laptop.

Food to me is something I can sacrifice on in order to afford luxuries elsewhere.

Ah, that explains it: vastly different valuation systems. You call me "utterly wasteful" for wanting good food, I say the stuff that your body uses to maintain itself is more important than some cloth you drape over it to avoid being fined for public nudity or booze (I like to party as much as the next guy, but more important than food??).

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

...huh??

When you live and eat alone, it tends to be wasteful. You spend more time preparing, time over a hot stove top, and gven the portions are really small (to avoid eating the same stuff over a course of days) means more time spent in supermarkets and more wasted scraps after the said preparation/buying goods process.

Ah, that explains it: vastly different valuation systems. You call me "utterly wasteful" for wanting good food, I say the stuff that your body uses to maintain itself is more important than some cloth you drape over it to avoid being fined for public nudity or booze (I like to party as much as the next guy, but more important than food??).

I never said it was logical. That being said, I eat pretty healthy ... only austere. Barring all the drink, of course. But we all have vices. If you have a choice between being embarassed of, or embracing, your necessary flaws picked up simply by living, I choose 'embrace'.

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

You can cook with that in mind, making stews, soups, leftover meals, and that kind of thing. It's not what most people do though.

It' not what single people do because they don't want to eat the same soup over the course of days. No way in Hell am I going to cook soup or stews with the idea of preparing for a single dinner when it's just me.

Whilst you might say; "You can always freeze it and enjoy it over a longer period of time than a few days" ... the problem with that is that if you were then to trade in my diet for a home cooked one each day, you end up throwing stuff away out of your freezer as it begins to get cluttered. Unless you buy a huge freezer, in which case you're then wasting power and wasting space .... studio apartments aren't that big, and you still have to find a way to move it every year or so.

 

[LordLundar]

I like cooking for myself and periodically I like cooking for others. I have a habit of going to Alton Brown's recipes as my mainstay.

Am I capable cook? Absolutely.

Do I want to make it a career? Nopenopenopenopenope.

 

[sky14kemea]

Not really. I'll throw crap into saucepans and occasionally mess around with soups or rice but I usually don't have the time/money/patience to bother cooking anything complicated or fancy.

I barely have any motivation, so when I get home from work if there's nothing super fast to make then sometimes I'll just not bother having dinner at all. I do make sure to always have breakfast though, even if it's just endless days of cereal. I try and add variety by putting a scoop of ice cream in sometimes, or maybe crush up a candy bar. Just not every day or I'll be running around on a sugar high.

You can cook with that in mind, making stews, soups, leftover meals, and that kind of thing. It's not what most people do though.

Ick. I abhor frozen home-cooked meals. It might be the way I cook but it never reheats properly and I just end up getting stomach aches.

My mom does that a lot though. She'll make a huge pan of pasta sauce and freeze half of it for the next few days. I just tend to go "all or nothing" when I make too much and try to eat it all in one go, 'cause I sure aint gonna eat it tomorrow.

 

[Total LOLige]

Then to top it all off, the cook has to wash the dishes.

The cook should never have to wash the dishes. They just slaved away over a hot stove creating a taste explosion, it makes no sense.

OT: I don't cook "proper" meals. I'm perfectly happy to live off pizza, pot noodles and pancakes.

 

[bluerocker]

I love, love, love to cook and bake; especially for larger groups of family and friends. My main problem however is that I'm still a student and I'm either living at home or in a Uni's dorm, the latter of which doesn't have much space for a kitchen. Not to mention a lack of cookware and space for stuff like spices and knives, etc. (and that's not even getting into the regulations about having said knives) makes it difficult to cook decent meals while at said uni, so I usually eat at the dining hall or get frozen stuff.

That said, if I obtain a proper job and have the means to live on my own, I'd be happy to cook modestly for myself. The hard part would be making sure not to make too much; seeing as I used to making food for larger groups.

 

[Valfreya]

I cook at least one meal every day, usually two. I've been doing so for about eight years now. I'd like to think I'm pretty frickin' great at it, or maybe my girlfriend is just a really good liar.

The only meals I don't cook are pizza, twice a week, and that's only because Papa Johns has a 50% off deal around here twice a week. And their pizza is better than mine.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

Well yes I cook, but it is my job so I try not to.

For myself? Well I get in from work anywhere between midnight and 2 am, so I don't usually make my own food. Sometimes I'll fry up a steak or stick some chicken breast in the oven and then just microwave some rice, but other that not really. Occasionally I'll make up some wraps, or make a stew on my rare days off.

Most of the time it's frozen pizza though.

 

[Varrdy]

I moved out of my parent's place (again) a year and a half ago and was determined to learn to cook properly. Frankly, if my mother doesn't know how to cook it then it's not food, so she's been a big help with advice and both my parents have bought me a crapload of cooking gear for my birthdays and Christmas.

OK sometimes you really can't be arsed and the take-away / phone combo is your friend but I do get a lot of satisfaction from taking a load of raw ingredients and making them into a meal.

 

[Chefsbrian]

I cook daily, easily. Most mornings its just scrambled eggs and hashbrowns, because that's much cheaper than most of the alternative breakfasts for the amount of food I get. Same with Soups, Chili's, and so on. My college has a butchery program so they sell dirt cheap meats there, I can get full sized steaks for five bucks, so I eat alot of those when classes are in session as well.

 

[Artina89]

I started to cook from scratch when I developed a gluten intolerance, and I found that an awful lot of things contain gluten or made in a plant where grains are also processed, so I did it to avoid being sick, and I must say that I find it rather cathartic, and it usually tastes pretty good in my opinion, and I feel healthier than ever. There is something rather satisfying about preparing your own meals.

 

[omega 616]

I'm a chef, so no! After cooking for X number of people, the last thing I want to do is come home and cook from scratch for me!

I usually just heat stuff up, wedges, chicken burgers, pizzas etc I some times go to the chippy but I don't ring up places and get them to deliver. I also don't go to fast food places, with the only exception being subway ... but they aren't exactly traditional fast food.

 

[MeatMachine]

I'm a damn good cook, but I'm also pretty much a 1-trick pony in the kitchen. I'm really good with beef and have amazed people with beef stew, broccoli beef, beef tacos, and homemade burgers... but I balls up anything having to do with chicken or pork.

 

[Secondhand Revenant]

Not very much. Where do you guys usually get recipes that are convenient?

 

[RandV80]

My Grandpa wooed my grandma with his home made pie. My dad and pretty much all my uncles were loggers & miners and when they're working long days out in the isolated bush you need to know how to make a good meal for yourself.

So of course I cook too, I consider it a manly trait!

 

[thesilentman]

I don't, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE food. I also just don't like the feeling of some outside food in my stomach, so once I'm finally off to college I guess I'll teach myself how to cook.

 

[djdomain]

I like cooking, especially making new things. The problem is I live by myself, so it is pointless making a whole bunch of food that feeds more than one person. On the occasions where the family is together (eg. Xmas) I will try making something new, Xmas dessert is always pavlova and usually either a choc-malteser cake or a choc-ripple cake.

If I had more time (or went back in time, either one is fine) I'd like to practice cooking more. I've also got the Hello Cupcake! books and some seasons of Cake Boss on DVD, I really like the artistry and techniques used to create awesome looking and tasting foods. I've made the duck cupcakes a few times and they are great, except for the beaks. I've tried molding the beaks by hand using orange Starburst, but they always have a sticky texture even when I use cornflour. My next attempt I'll try using orange melting candies but I don't know how I'll make the shape for the beaks, either by trying to shape it with my fingers when it's cool or finding something the right shape that would make a good mold.