Friday, July 11, 2008

Musings from the homestead

As much as I love food, love to cook, subscribe to Cooking Light, and watch the Food Network nonstop, cooking and food never ceases to baffle me sometimes. For example, what is the scientific reason behind the fact that when you combine lemon juice and cream, it separates the cream every single time, and yet there is never a mention of this in the recipes?

Also, why is it that sometimes I can spend ten minutes and make a gourmet meal or I can do what I did last night - attempt to make a simple meal, and have it take an hour and half, dirty nearly every dish we own, and taste rather simple... maybe even a little boring. I have no idea - it all confuses me. Maybe it's a separate art to be able to look at a recipe and determine if it's actually going to be quick or slow. Because sometimes they look complicated and they're not, and vice versa.

Another question? Why is it that no matter how old you are, everyone claims that their mother makes that one specific dish far better than they could, despite years of trying?

Other than food, week 1 as a housewife is pluggin' along just fine. It's definitely weird to not be using your brain everyday in the more academic sense, but on the flip side, it's SO nice to be able to catch up on all of the things that slipped by the wayside over the past six months. I'm actually able to keep the kitchen clean, keep up with the laundry, unpack some of the wedding gifts, etc. Now if I could just get better about returning all of those emails and Facebook messages!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm so jealous!!!!!!!! I wish Joe would let me be a stay-at-home mom. I think Olivia would love that. I miss watching Martha, Oprah, going to the gym at 10 am instead of 5:45 am, I miss sipping coffee on the back deck. Anyway....Mozel Tov!

Strongmama said...

Just remember that lemons are very acidic and milk is extremely basic, so they aren't going to be best friends very often by themselves.
I know how frustrating it is to go through a ton of work only to have a bland meal. You might be interested in the book What Einstein Told His Cook: Kitchen Science Explained by Robert Wolke. We have it and it's pretty interesting. Also the cookbook How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman is really great because it gives you basics and how tos, but then also gives you variations on most dishes. I use this book a ton!

I think the whole "Mom's is always better" comes from the memories and emotions we attach to certain foods when we are growing up as well and that is hard to recapture just by making the dish. I know my mom's meatloaf is a good example and it's so simple, but it never really tastes the same. Then again, that could just be a sign that I shouldn't be making meatloaf at all.

Glad your first week as a domestic goddess is going well! (That's another fun cookbook)

Ouiser said...

honestly, i think a lot of issues that i have in the kitchen are in my head. like...how can i make a perfect meringue, but i can't manage a palatable baked potato? maybe that's your lemon/cream issue. maybe not.

i'm glad your first week went well. as for the clean kitchen, i introduce you to the ouiser family motto, "a clean kitchen is a happy family." it's based on the fact that a messy kitchen equals a panicky mama, which equals an unpleasant situation for anyone who steps foot into my house.

have a great weekend.

Ithaca_chick said...

Good for you on the clean kitchen - mine is a disaster! :-)

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