Learn to cook

Chick Peas, that is. I made hummus today. Plain and simple garlic hummus. Bought some flat bread for dipping. Pretty good stuff, although my wife says the house now stinks. She’s not a garlic fan.

After the last few days, I’m convinced that cooking is really not that difficult. Provided you have time and a few tried-and-true recipes to work with, the only thing preventing someone from succeeding is patience and maybe some organizational skills.

Since we came home from the hospital (my first son was born), I’ve made dinner every night except Wednesday:

Thursday
Grilled cheeseburgers to taste, baked potatoes, strawberry shortcake

Friday
Grilled pork-chops, asparagus, rice

Saturday
Steak, chili/season salt potato wedges, zucchini, strawberry shortcake.

OK, so I’ve really just grilled food the last three nights, but still…I didn’t do any grilling or cooking of any kind, so this is definitely closer to my goal.

A minor accomplishment – French bread pizza. I must be mechanically deficient though; For some reason, our electric can opener confounds me. After a 15 minute struggle, I had to let me wife open it. Maybe the purchase of a hand-crank can opener is just around the bend.

My in-laws were here for Easter dinner. My father-in-law taught me how to make Béchamel sauce

It’s a simple recipe: butter, flour, and milk all heated. It may be simple, but it’s the foundation for many recipes. So I’ve got one of the building blocked under my belt now.

Here’s my latest attempt, Tom Kha Gai Soup

It really wasn’t that difficult, actually. Here are the ingredients:
*Chicken Stock
*Coconut Milk
*Galangal
*Lime Leaves
*Lemongrass
*Thai Chiles
*Fish Sauce

Basically, just mix it all up. Just like the authors of the linked recipe, I mixed it up with some rice.

Coincidently, if you live in the Pittsburgh area, you can buy all of those ingredients at Asian markets down in the strip.

I’m going to attempt to make a Thai soup tomorrow. We’re going to hunt the ingredients today. If anyone in Pittsburgh knows a good place to buy Thai ingredients, please share.

Details will be forthcoming.

My last culinary concoction was a batch of french onion soup made straight from a recipe I found on the internet. That was two years ago. I’d like to honestly learn how to cook though, i.e. able to open up the cupboard and whip up something good. My wife is fantastic at this—I envy her. We’re expecting a baby REALLY soon, and I’d really like to be able to make dinner when she’s just too tired, or even when she’s not, just to give her some relief.