josh_swinehart
Senior Cook
Let me begin by saying that I don't know if this is the right place for this, and if it is not please feel free to move it to the appropriate place.
When I was a small child and was first getting interested in what the big people around me were doing, my mother taught me a interesting lesson. She let me bake a "cake". She let me pick and choose the ingredients that I thought made a cake, mix them up and add some food coloring and then she baked it for me. It came out a little hard pink mass that in no way resembled real food that one would put in ones mouth. Then she got out a little card and we went through a series of steps which ended up producing a real cake that one would indeed enjoy eating. This little adventure taught me several things but the reason I share this story is that this was my first introduction to the concept of a Recipe.
Fast forward some twenty something years and I am a adult who enjoys cooking, baking and spending time in the kitchen. I make meals for my DW and for my friends and have fun doing it. I like to come on these forums and read about all of your exploits and read your wonderful recipes. I spend time looking up recipes for dishes I am interested in making and planning meals.
Ok all of that was to say this. Twice in the last few weeks (most recently this morning) I have been talking cooking with customers in the store I work at (jewelry repair), and when I mentioned looking up recipes or finding a new recipe I wanted to try they made a face or scoffed. As if to say "Oh well sure you cook but you use recipes, pansy." I can honestly say that I hold neither of these particular people in any kind of esteem as I do not really know either of them but all the same I felt a bit bruised afterwards.
So tell me, am I less of a cook for starting from a recipe? Should I be able to put things together without a reference and just know that the will turn out? Or do I just talk to nutjobs at work?
Thank you for letting me vent all that. What do you think DC?
-Josh hart
When I was a small child and was first getting interested in what the big people around me were doing, my mother taught me a interesting lesson. She let me bake a "cake". She let me pick and choose the ingredients that I thought made a cake, mix them up and add some food coloring and then she baked it for me. It came out a little hard pink mass that in no way resembled real food that one would put in ones mouth. Then she got out a little card and we went through a series of steps which ended up producing a real cake that one would indeed enjoy eating. This little adventure taught me several things but the reason I share this story is that this was my first introduction to the concept of a Recipe.
Fast forward some twenty something years and I am a adult who enjoys cooking, baking and spending time in the kitchen. I make meals for my DW and for my friends and have fun doing it. I like to come on these forums and read about all of your exploits and read your wonderful recipes. I spend time looking up recipes for dishes I am interested in making and planning meals.
Ok all of that was to say this. Twice in the last few weeks (most recently this morning) I have been talking cooking with customers in the store I work at (jewelry repair), and when I mentioned looking up recipes or finding a new recipe I wanted to try they made a face or scoffed. As if to say "Oh well sure you cook but you use recipes, pansy." I can honestly say that I hold neither of these particular people in any kind of esteem as I do not really know either of them but all the same I felt a bit bruised afterwards.
So tell me, am I less of a cook for starting from a recipe? Should I be able to put things together without a reference and just know that the will turn out? Or do I just talk to nutjobs at work?
Thank you for letting me vent all that. What do you think DC?
-Josh hart