learn to cook. Really cook.

For a present at one point I decided I wanted to bake my boyfriend a gluten-free cake (*note to self: I owe Jaime a cake) and diligently followed the instructions. I even tracked down a vanilla extract that did not have a trace of gluten in it. The cake itself came out a bit dry and somewhat springy, but not in a good way like a sponge. I must say though my frosting kicked ass. It was this peanut butter cream cheese frosting that I had extra of and slathered over random dessert carbs for weeks.

My boyfriend said he liked it though, couldn’t tell and mentioned that it could of just been the best possible alternative to cake with gluten. The cake itself had yogurt in it to make it moist and looking back I realized that the cake ingredients mixed in quite well and fast, so I think I over-stirred it.

I’ve also heard of some more cake tips. Along with yogurt or sour cream which I already knew, to try replacing the milk to either half and half or whole cream even, to never ever use lard or crisco (as if I ever would) and to try organic unprocessed coconut oil. I also want to try making a honey cake.

I took a Multicultural Cooking class in school at one point where they had us work in teams, so the sense of “uuh, huuh” was shared amongst others. Yet no one ever tells you that sense never goes away when you walk into your own kitchen. It pretty much only served as a confidence builder with the teacher as your babysitter if you need them and everything else it taught left me.

I did end up learning how to bake a cake and make soft pretzels from scratch though. I don’t do either one all that often, so I don’t really use the oven that much. I baked a successful pie once. My mother taught me how to make cookies from scratch that one time and she also taught me how to make pancakes and waffles at one point, but griddles and waffle irons are a bit different.

I’ve been on this quest this year to bake a cake that I really like. I think there were too many kid’s birthday parties I went to that had awful cake. The cake was dry and crumbly. The frosting was greasy, syrupy and left this odd after taste. Somewhat tangy from the syrup and a sheen of oil on your tongue from the grease. I hated cake and for a long time. For some reason there’s also this idea that people have that more frosting on an already gross cake is somehow going to make the cake better. It doesn’t.

I went to a friend’s birthday party where one of her friends had baked a really good cake. I tracked the person down, explained my predicament and asked how it was done. Pudding. Already made, tossed right into the batter and cooked that way. The first time I made it, I got out a bunt cake pan, made the chocolate cake batter and then tossed chocolate pudding in and baked it. Best cake I ever made.

-Then I tried the same set up, same pan, chocolate cake batter, chocolate pudding, but when filling the pan, stopped halfway and tossed in cherries from some pie filling.

Yeah, it looks okay, but it didn’t work, there was way too much moisture and it wasn’t really a cake so much as it was a….fortunately shaped blob.

-Then I decided to try something different. I got a french vanilla cake mix and banana pudding. However it bordered slightly on too moist and I think that was because this time I took it out too soon. I’m finding the “just right” level to be somewhat difficult with an already moist on purpose cake. It also had frosting issues. I decided to make it from scratch and even though my mother couldn’t tell and swore that powdered sugar doesn’t go stale, my frosting still tasted a bit…off. It also separated fast and seeped into the pores of my cake and made it a bit more wet than it already was=P

I hear that besides pudding and pie filling (but never together! lol) different flavors of apple sauce, carrots and pumpkin also work well. I’ve also read about a method where you toss in some softened ice cream/sherbet/sorbet into the batter and increase the amount of eggs I think, but I’m not sure on the specifics. Probably a lot of my mother’s “Homemaker Suzy Bakes Well” demeanor leads her to being perhaps somewhat more inclined to be encouraging towards me in my efforts, so after I find my mistakes funny and decide to try again, it is practice, practice and more practice.

With eggs I can make an omelet, scramble them, make a toad-in-the-hole or otherwise fry them, but none of this weird business where only one side of the egg is cooked less or more the other, well on purpose anyway. By default if I fry an egg then the yolk is cooked on the under side and halfway cooked on the top, but it has a gooey center. It is not runny though and even though poached eggs cooked well aren’t supposed to be runny they’re still gross.

I can cook a juicy hamburger and can cook ground beef i.e for spaghetti. One time I tried to make this really thin sliver of beef (I think it was intended for a Philly steak sandwhich) and totally scorched it making the rookie mistake of too high a heat right away, so it was, haha, burnt on the outside and frozen in the middle! I can also cook skinless, boneless chicken breasts, but for some reason bone-in throws my sense of “it be done” off. I can cook breakfast sausage in links or in patties. The turkey kind is probably better for me though and I don’t think that would be much of a difference skill-wise. I also haven’t tried fish yet and I want to see how I do with some salmon perhaps.

Even though I don’t really eat steak I still want to learn how to make it really well. Perhaps it’s one of those things where I haven’t liked it, because it wasn’t cooked well. Also apparently this is a fairly common staple of the male species and who’d a thunk it, but…I might find myself having the urge to cook for a dude at some point or another.

I can make:

-Rice
-Grains
-Beans
-Pasta, noodles, ravioli, tortellini, potstickers etc.
-Pretty much anything that comes in a box or a bag that requires boiled water
-Steam vegetables with one those unfolding metal steamers that go in a pan, in which there was a failed attempt with greens
-However a successful attempt at an artichoke tonight

Also I’ve made a roux, and then a white sauce as my base (a béchamel?) I made an attempt at a cheese sauce for macaroni once, but that didn’t work out flavor-wise. Not cheesy enough. Tonight I added fresh dill for a sauce to compliment my artichoke. I found that lemon-butter tastes kinda weird to me, but was satisfied with my dill white sauce=)

I can boil water.