Learning to Cook: My Winter Break Experiences with Walter Staib

[Cyrus]

Man! If I could have afforded to eat like you are eating, I never would have had the discipline to learn how to cook!

When you sum it up, it costs about the same as going to a place like Quiznos or Subway and getting a large sandwich. :rofl:

The whole thing of soup was only $8.00

Plus I want something that cooks FAST.

 

[Evo]

Cyrus, Legal Seafoods has a location in DC and they are known for their clam chowder, have you tired it?

They had some great mussels last time I was there, and the best wine I'd had in ages, but can't remember the name of it.

 

[turbo]

When you sum it up, it costs about the same as going to a place like Quiznos or Subway and getting a large sandwich. :rofl:

The whole thing of soup was only $8.00

I couldn't have afforded to eat at a sub place in college on any regular basis. I'd have to save my money from frat-party gigs, etc, to be able to treat a lady to such a low-cost date. Once in a while, I'd sell a guitar or amp that made me flush for a bit - still I wouldn't change my overall diet/cooking strategy. I'd go to school every year with insufficient money to get me through the year, and I'd claw my way through, somehow. (want to buy a guitar?)

 

[Cyrus]

Cyrus, Legal Seafoods has a location in DC and they are known for their clam chowder, have you tired it?

They had some great mussels last time I was there, and the best wine I'd had in ages, but can't remember the name of it.

If you want good mussels, I'll take you to a small spanish resturant next time your in town.

 

[Cyrus]

I couldn't have afforded to eat at a sub place in college on any regular basis. I'd have to save my money from frat-party gigs, etc, to be able to treat a lady to such a low-cost date. Once in a while, I'd sell a guitar or amp that made me flush for a bit - still I wouldn't change my overall diet/cooking strategy. I'd go to school every year with insufficient money to get me through the year, and I'd claw my way through, somehow. (want to buy a guitar?)

I can believe that. You guys have such a different lifestyle up north. When I visited Mass. it was quite different from being in DC. The people really seemed to be beaten down by life and generally unhappy. No one I talked to had any pride about where they lived. The food was MUCH better though. In general though the people seemed pretty...miserable.

I donno, just an observation I had.

 

[Evo]

If you want good mussels, I'll take you to a small spanish resturant next time your in town.

:!)

 

[turbo]

I can believe that. You guys have such a different lifestyle up north. When I visited Mass. it was quite different from being in DC. The people really seemed to be beaten down by life and generally unhappy. No one I talked to had any pride about where they lived. The food was MUCH better though. In general though the people seemed pretty...miserable.

I donno, just an observation I had.

I am proud of my family, friends, and was hopeful of my prospects when I was a kid. New Englanders (at least us in the northern reaches) are conservative, self-reliant and resistant to exuberance about small up-turns. Your limited experience in Mass gave you a very slanted look at us. I grew up with people whose families established farms and businesses no more than miles away, and who are proud of their heritage, and they can be trusted with your life. In a place that is as thinly-populated as Maine, your reputation is everything. You might be able to get away with pulling slimy crap elsewhere, but you wouldn't last long here if you were unethical.

BTW, my cousin is heading up the upcoming HST servicing mission and I grew a division of an auction company from $4.5M to over $15M in about 3 years. Neither of us has a 4-year degree.

 

[CaptainQuasar]

I can believe that. You guys have such a different lifestyle up north. When I visited Mass. it was quite different from being in DC. The people really seemed to be beaten down by life and generally unhappy. No one I talked to had any pride about where they lived. The food was MUCH better though. In general though the people seemed pretty...miserable.

That's it, the old dour Yankee. It's a New England tradition, being miserable. If there isn't something to complain about life has no meaning. http://www.runemasterstudios.com/graemlins/images/lol.gif

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[/URL]

 

[Cyrus]

That's it, the old dour Yankee. It's a New England tradition, being miserable. If there isn't something to complain about life has no meaning. http://www.runemasterstudios.com/graemlins/images/lol.gif

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I thought you guys grow beards and fix houses like new yankee workshop and do fishing like gordons fisherman (also has a beard).

 

[turbo]

I thought you guys grow beards and fix houses like new yankee workshop and do fishing like gordons fisherman (also has a beard).

I spent a whole fall and winter crawling around a barn, leveling the sills, and rebuilding the foundations.

A year later, I spent every day after work and every hour I had on the weekends helping a friend build a stone house. The farm was loaded with stone walls, and mortar was cheaper than plywood.

We're not all backward-looking - only the smart ones have figured that out.

 

[CaptainQuasar]

I thought you guys grow beards and fix houses like new yankee workshop and do fishing like gordons fisherman (also has a beard).

Oh yes. Except for the Yankee computer guys, we have goatees and ponytails.

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[Cyrus]

Oh yes. Except for the Yankee computer guys, we have goatees and ponytails.

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Damn, I knew it. Your abundance of beards is going to take over the world...

 

[Cyrus]

http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/4729/pict0341wr0.jpg

1 Can of tuna fish
1/2 lime (juice & zest)
chives
mayo
crushed crackers (as many as you want)


Tastes pretty good!

The magic is using lime. It makes the flavor pop.

 

[Evo]

http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/4729/pict0341wr0.jpg

1 Can of tuna fish
1/2 lime (juice & zest)
chives
mayo
crushed crackers (as many as you want)


Tastes pretty good!

The magic is using lime. It makes the flavor pop.

Lime is a wonderful substitute for lemon. I can tell you like mayonaise.

 

[Moonbear]

http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/4729/pict0341wr0.jpg

1 Can of tuna fish
1/2 lime (juice & zest)
chives
mayo
crushed crackers (as many as you want)


Tastes pretty good!

The magic is using lime. It makes the flavor pop.

What did it look like before the cat vomited it up? :uhh: Sorry Cyrus, it might taste good, but you need to work on presentation and photography...it looks like a bowl of vomit. :yuck:

 

[Cyrus]

What did it look like before the cat vomited it up? :uhh: Sorry Cyrus, it might taste good, but you need to work on presentation and photography...it looks like a bowl of vomit. :yuck:

:rofl: HAHAHAHA It does look like cat vomit!

 

[lisab]

:rofl: It does look like cat vomit!

I think the basic recipe sounds pretty good, but I'd add a lot of celery (and maybe peas) and serve it on egg noodles rather than crackers.

But granted, crackers are easier!

 

[Evo]

I think the basic recipe sounds pretty good, but I'd add a lot of celery (and maybe peas) and serve it on egg noodles rather than crackers.

Isn't that tuna casserole?

My favorite tuna spread is tuna, mayonaise and chopped green olives. I ate my last can of tuna 2 nights ago and now I'm craving it.

 

[turbo]

Cy, you've got to come to Maine. You can camp out in my garage, and I will teach you to cook actual meals made out of actual food. Opening cans and heating stuff up doesn't cut it! Today, I put a large roasting chicken in the oven around 1:30 at 450 deg. (F, for the smart-assed Euros who will make jokes) I put the bird in a large pan with about 1/2" of water in it, along with a large quartered yellow onion. I rubbed the bird with peanut oil, and dusted it with powdered sage, paprika, salt and black pepper. After about 45 min of browning, I tented the bird with aluminum foil and continued cooking at 350 deg F for another couple of hours. Add side dishes of steamed green beans, mashed potatoes made with fresh garlic and onion, and you've got a meal that is killer.

Secret: There is no secret. Good cooking is simplicity, a bit of planning, minimum prep, and a lot of waiting around (if you are roasting large critters). You can learn to cook - you just need motivation and some inventiveness.

Have chicken parts? Wet them in raw scrambled eggs, and roll them in crushed Panko bread crumbs with sage, pepper and salt added. Place the chicken parts in a roasting pan lubricated with peanut oil, garnish them with a bit of lemon zest (shredded peels) and drizzle a bit of lemon juice over them. Bake in a hot oven until done. One of the quickest, tastiest entrees you will ever taste.

BTW, all the juice from the roasting pan, and all the juice from the potato/garlic/onion mash-up, and from the steamed beans is now in a large revere-ware pot along with all the bones, giblets, and other parts that didn't get eaten tonight. I'll boil that tomorrow to make chicken stock for stews or soups.

 

[Cyrus]

I think the basic recipe sounds pretty good, but I'd add a lot of celery (and maybe peas) and serve it on egg noodles rather than crackers.

But granted, crackers are easier!

Damn...peas. Genius. That's a good idea.

 

[Cyrus]

Cy, you've got to come to Maine. You can camp out in my garage, and I will teach you to cook actual meals made out of actual food. Opening cans and heating stuff up doesn't cut it! Today, I put a large roasting chicken in the oven around 1:30 at 450 deg. (F, for the smart-assed Euros who will make jokes) I put the bird in a large pan with about 1/2" of water in it, along with a large quartered yellow onion. I rubbed the bird with peanut oil, and dusted it with powdered sage, paprika, salt and black pepper. After about 45 min of browning, I tented the bird with aluminum foil and continued cooking at 350 deg F for another couple of hours. Add side dishes of steamed green beans, mashed potatoes made with fresh garlic and onion, and you've got a meal that is killer.

Secret: There is no secret. Good cooking is simplicity, a bit of planning, minimum prep, and a lot of waiting around (if you are roasting large critters). You can learn to cook - you just need motivation and some inventiveness.

Have chicken parts? Wet them in raw scrambled eggs, and roll them in crushed Panko bread crumbs with sage, pepper and salt added. Place the chicken parts in a roasting pan lubricated with peanut oil, garnish them with a bit of lemon zest (shredded peels) and drizzle a bit of lemon juice over them. Bake in a hot oven until done. One of the quickest, tastiest entrees you will ever taste.

BTW, all the juice from the roasting pan, and all the juice from the potato/garlic/onion mash-up, and from the steamed beans is now in a large revere-ware pot along with all the bones, giblets, and other parts that didn't get eaten tonight. I'll boil that tomorrow to make chicken stock for stews or soups.

The problem is that I don't have hours to cook. I have under an hour. I'm working my way up there to real cooking though......some day.

 

[lisab]

Isn't that tuna casserole?

Exactly!

*lisab LOVES tuna casserole :!) *

 

[Evo]

Exactly!

*lisab LOVES tuna casserole :!) *

Come here, I have enough leftover tuna casserole in my fridge to kill 50 people. :tongue2:

 

[turbo]

Come here, I have enough leftover tuna casserole in my fridge to kill 50 people. :tongue2:

She's not kidding! Listeria, Salmonella, whatever... it's in her fridge.

 

[Proton Soup]

'Kraut is preserved by brining. It's essentially shredded cabbage packed in salt, so it's fine to eat as-bought. Ain't nothin' bad going to grow in an environment with that much salt in it.

Still, you've got to learn to cook some stuff, Cy! Buying stuff and frying it or warming it up is very expensive and it gets old after a short time. Get some salt pork (or even better, a meaty bone from a ham-hock) and boil it with lentils, onions, celery, and some pepper and a little salt (not necessary if you use either salt pork or really salty ham) and see what you think. Carrots are very inexpensive and they keep well in the fridge, and they are also a nice addition to lentil soup.

the nice thing about lentils is they're quick.

for something less quick, but still cheap and not a whole lot of actual work, soak dried pintos overnight. rinse and put in a crock pot with the above trinity of onion/celery/bell pepper, black pepper and salt, maybe some garlic. instead of the salt pork, get some of that sage breakfast sausage that you slice up, and brown it in a skillet like hamburger. toss the sausage in the pot and let it cook all day on low. serve over rice. cubed and pan-sauteed potatoes makes a good side, imo.

 

[dyosa]

What did it look like before the cat vomited it up? :uhh: Sorry Cyrus, it might taste good, but you need to work on presentation and photography...it looks like a bowl of vomit. :yuck:

i agree. it looks so bland. make it more attractive and put more color to contrast the white.

 

[vincentm]

Cyrus, cookbooks are OK as far as they go, but the real fun in cooking is creating your own meals. Think of things that might go well together and give them a whirl. My wife and I are always tossing things together and many of our favorite dishes were born that way. Recently we sauteed peppers, onions and mushrooms until they were browned, stirred in a can of black beans and some of our jalapeno salsa and served that over a bed of Basmati rice. It was delicious. We made a similar dish recently by mixing all those ingredients (including the steamed rice) putting them in a casserole dish topped with shredded cheeses, and baked it until the cheese melted in and browned on top.

I applaud your efforts and wish you well as you learn, but don't be too constrained by recipes. The best meal you've never had (yet) is probably riding around in your imagination right now. My wife took a course in gourmet French provincial cooking, yet she never makes a single dish that she made in that course. The practical things that she learned, like how to make a good soup stock, how to debone chickens, how to handle chef's knives, etc, were worth the tuition, but our best dishes still come from imagination and a creative treatment of whatever is available in our freezers or was on sale at the market. This morning we had a great breakfast of pan-fried potatoes and sea scallops sauteed in butter. Fresh scallops were on sale yesterday.

Yup, the key to learning to cook, is experimenting. Learn to know your cooking temps and measurements, as time goes on and yo master your own dishes, these factors will come naturally. I don't even use a measuring cup anymore.