My other “focus” project for myself this winter, in addition to the reading/decluttering project, has to do with cooking. I’ve never been much of a cook, and now is the time to change that. I’m not aiming toward fancy dishes, nor even toward a huge repertoire. I just want to expand my list of what I can cook COMFORTABLY — meaning 1) in a hurry, 2) when I’m stressed, anxious or upset, and 3) without thinking too hard about it. Without a cookbook would be nice, but some things are just going to need a written recipe — my goal is for it to be easy for me — meaning I know which cookbook it’s in, and what ingredients I need (without looking at the cookbook, so I can get the ingredients on a whim in town when I decide to make something) — or make sure I’ve stocked up so that I *know* I have what I need. I think it’s also important that I develop a sense of what’s important and what’s flexible, for each meal, so that I know when I can substitute or do without some particular ingredient (as well as add extras!).
For example, a few years ago I decided that my “standard” potluck dish would be sauteed mushrooms. It’s something that most people like, but it’s not a typical potluck dish so I never worry about someone else bringing the same thing. I’ve made it often enough that I know what I put into it, I know whether I can make a batch with that partial stick of butter or whether I need more (and whether I can substitute olive oil for the butter if I want). I know how little (or how much) garlic I want. I know how much time it takes, how much of my energy it takes (ie how far in advance I need to start). I’m comfortable with it, in other words.
I want to add ten dishes to my “comfortable” repertoire this winter.
Without getting too bogged down in rules, here’s what I’m thinking:
Stir fry, rice/beans, soup, stew, chili, bread, biscuits/gravy, pancakes, pie, cookies, lasagna.
Stir fry: I’ve rarely if ever made a stir fry. I want to make it often enough that I can ” throw a stir fry together” using whatever I have laying around. I have a wok and want to get in the habit of using it (or get rid of it if it’s not the right tool, but from what I hear it’s an excellent tool).
Rice/beans: Of course I’ve made rice and beans before. But I want to experiment with some new kinds of beans, and a variety of seasonings.
Soup: Ditto, I’ve made lots of different soups before. But none that I can just “throw together”. I’ve made some I really like (carrot-ginger, mmm!) that I just need to make a few more times so that it’s etched into my mind and I don’t need the recipe in front of me anymore. With other soups I need to learn about spices, as the veggies turn out horribly bland, and the water isn’t brothy, so it’s just soggy veggies in water. I think learning a few tricks about seasoning soups will do wonders for me.
Stew: same as soup, just focusing on root vegetables (and perhaps a touch of meat if I can find local/organic sources — but perhaps not — I haven’t cooked meat at home for many years now, and haven’t decided to change that, but I’m not overly attached to it, as long as I’m happy with the source of the meat — oh, except for beef, I still boycott that).
Chili: I’ve only made chili once, and it was years ago and I’m pretty sure it had ground beef in it. I’d like to learn to make a tasty vegetarian chili.
Bread: I tried bread a handful of times in the past few years, and usually got something edible, but not overly. I want to find a recipe that works for me and then make it regularly, matching however much bread I eat (which currently isn’t much, but the more soup I make, the more bread I will correspondingly want to have).
Pancakes: I used to make them often when I was a kid, but I haven’t made them in years.
Biscuits/gravy: I want to be able to make these on an early morning, knowing what I’m doing but not having to think too hard about it.
Pie: I’ve made really good pumpkin pie a few times, but no other kind. And definitely no homemade pie crusts — not sure if I’ll tackle that this winter or not. But I’d like to add at least one other kind of pie to my repertoire.
Cookies: I’ve rarely made cookies and I don’t plan to make them often — I just want to know how. Sugar cookies seem to be what I want to know how to do. The only successful cookies I can recall making were M&M cookies, which must have been about 35 years ago when I was a young teenager!
Lasagna — Never made it, want to know how. Again, not that I plan to make it often, but it would be a good thing to make in order to have a week’s worth of “just heat” meals. And, of course, I won’t be using meat, so I need to find a good vegetarian recipe.
Now, one twist to my cooking projects this winter is that I really want to emphasize non-traditional cooking methods. Whenever the woodstove’s going, any stovetop cooking I’m doing will probably be done there. And I’ll be interested in seeing how my solar oven works in the wintertime (it’s still sunny, after all!). Further, I want to get more familiar with using my electric crockpot to slow-cook things — that way I can cook even on days I’m away working.
I’m not going to make a lot of strict rules about how many of these things I’ll get to, but they are all things I want to do/learn/add to my skills, so I’ll just do as many of them as I can get to.
Side benefits will be less money spent on eating out, more self-reliance, and a reduced chance of letting any of my stored food go to spoilage, once I actually follow the cardinal rule of food storage: Store What You Eat and Eat What You Store.
Now I better go, because I’m getting hungry. Let’s see if I can start on one of these projects tonight!
