Be honest about it now...
I'm a far better baker than a cook...though, I enjoy both.
I live and die by my Kitchaid mixer <- THE best damned mixer, period! *laugh*
I like to make things from scratch. Makes me feel like I'm breathing life into a dying art-form.
But, to me, cooking is an art and a science.
I'm working on becoming a more well-rounded cook. I want to be able to walk into that kitchen and bust out anything. I have lots of cook-books.
Personal recommendations:
- 'Chef Prudhomme. Cast iron dutch over? Not optional.
- 'Joy of Cooking'...the bible for cooks.
- Anything 'Julia Child'.
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The one thing that I deeply regret? My college roommate was Liberian. She always cooked and I never took the recipes from her. D*mn it. If you eat 'black' Cajun/Creole foods like gumbo? You can definitely see the African influence.
What I wouldn't give for some palm butter...or cassava, right now.
She made a dish with okra and it was delicious...and I don't even like okra!
I never ate quite so much rice as I did when we roomed together, either.
I have no earthly idea why more Africans aren't restaurant owners. If broken-english speaking individuals of Asian descent can flock down here w/o a pot to piss in and throw 'oriental cuisine' on every corner?
It can't be that much harder for anyone else.
I once asked her this. She never gave much of an answer. Africans open 'international/grocery stores' but they won't open restaurants. I don't get it.
Let me finnnnne out how to cook those dishes. *laugh* I'd throw a restaurant up in a heart beat and it would kill these 'soul food'/mexican/asian establishments around here, I'm telling you.