What's Cooking?

There are many reasons I love to cook.  First of all I love to eat.  But I want to eat foods with flavor and variety.  There is no room on my palate for bland food.   

Those of you that I've cooked for know my saying, "I'm glad you enjoyed what I made for myself."  The truth is I get great pleasure from watching and listening to you enjoy my creations.

For me cooking is great therapy.  I find that it's a great way for me to leave my thoughts behind.  I can spend time by myself in the kitchen, listening to some good music and slicing and dicing to my hearts content.

I cook by feel.  I try to avoid measuring devices as much as possible.  A little of this and a little of that serves me well.  If I am intrigued by a dish that I read about or see on a cooking show, I'll search out some recipes on the internet.  But I rarely cook specifically to any recipe.  I'll look at a few and make my own interpretation.

I try to be conscious about what ingredients are in the refrigerator and plan meals accordingly. Wednesday evenings I am usually home alone and I make supper from whatever I can find in the house. 

This was a Wednesday supper.  It started with a leftover flank steak salad.  I boiled about 5 oz of linguine. While the noodles were boiling I made a dressing of soy sauce, fish sauce, sesame oil, honey, and chili paste.  I tossed the salad with the dressing and then I tossed in the hot cooked noodles.  The heat from the noodles warmed up the salad and wilted the lettuce just a bit.  It was really yummy.