#29 Take a cooking class

I love to bake, but a cook, I am not.  Lately, I've been pondering the reasons why I’m not a good cook, as well as why I don’t really like to cook. This afternoon, when setting out to make chicken gyros with tzatziki sauce, I discovered what I believe is the root of my problem.

I’m lazy. 

I had a mad hankering for these gyros that I had at restaurant in Disneyland last month and decided to try and make them. I found a recipe for chicken gyros with tzatziki sauce that a friend pinned on pinterest. Now, already, I was cutting corners like I was running laps in PE again. See, the gyros I had at Disneyland were beef...but I’m not good at cooking beef. I know how to cook chicken, so this recipe would work. But I studied the recipe and it looked pretty complicated. The sauce required straining the water out of yogurt (overnight if possible), then shredding cucumber (that had been peeled and seeded) and straining the water out of it, too. Hmmmm. Come to think of it, the sauce I had in Disneyland tasted sorta like this dill dip that my grocery store carries. My laziness strikes again and I cut yet another corner (and this was a pretty big one).

I went to the grocery store and got some chicken breasts. These would have to be marinated, according to the recipe. As I was passing the butcher case, the fajita chicken caught my eye. Chicken already cut….and marinated….and with bell peppers, to boot! I was sure the fajita marinade would be close enough to gyro marinade.  Mexican, Greek...close enough, right (insert sarcastic smirk)?  “I’d like a pound of that fajita chicken, please,” I asked as I put the prepackaged chicken breasts back. Another corner cut.

Next, I went to find pita bread. My small town grocery store was out of authentic pita bread (actually, I'm not even sure they carry it...Pita bread is too exotic). I got some flatbread pockets that were similar, but not quite the same. For a minute, I thought, “Maybe I could try making….”  But that thought was taken captive before it was complete.  C’mon, like I was really going to make my own pita bread!?  I was giggling to myself in the bread aisle.


So, I came home, and in about 15 minutes, I had a pita pocket that not-so-closely resembled what I had set out to make in the first place. They were good…well, edible….but not really what I’d intended to make.
All this to say, I’m a lazy cook.  Of course, my distaste for cooking might also have something to do with my kitchen.  My house was built in the 1940's and nothing has been done to my kitchen since.  It has vintage charm, but it has less counter space than a Strawberry Shortcake kitchen I had when I was four and fifty percent of my storage space is accessible only when I'm standing on the counter.  I can't neglect to mention the absence of a dishwasher.   Show me a person who loves to cook, and I'll show you their dishwasher. 

I thought maybe if I took a cooking class, I’d get a little more enthused about cooking. I found a restaurant in a neighboring town that gave classes twice a month. I saw that the next class they were giving was a Paleo Class. If you don’t know what “Paleo” is, you’ve been living in a cave. If you eat Paleo, you might as well be living in a cave. The Paleo Diet is based on eating like the caveman (Paleolithic man). No grains, no dairy. Just meat, fruit, and veggies. Not something I could do and still be nice to people. But, my friend, Trin, was considering “going Paleo”, so I invited her along, as well as my sister-in-law, Jennifer.

When we showed up to the restaurant, they seated about 15 of us around a counter in the small kitchen that surrounded the chef’s cooking area. We didn’t get to help cook (which is what I really wanted to do), but we watched as the chef explained what she was making. We got to sample everything she cooked. Unfortunately, I’m not exactly what you would call a foodie. And this was foodie food.

The Paleo Diet uses coconut flour as a substitute for traditional flour and coconut milk to substitute real milk. Now, I’m a huge coconut fan, but I believe it has its place….and its place is in dessert….not dinner. Coconut creme pie, macaroons, Almond Joy bars, German chocolate frosting...all acceptable uses for coconut.  I know, this is a rather narrow minded view, but when it comes to food, that’s exactly what I am…narrow minded.

I did enjoy the yam chips, the blood orange and beet salad, and the coconut custard (the use of coconut milk was acceptable in this case, because it was a dessert). I wasn’t, however, too keen on the coconut shrimp, garnet yam bisque, fish cakes, or the tortilla espanola. While it was a fun night out with my friends, it didn’t exactly revolutionize my attitude toward culinary pursuits.

I’m not abandoning the hope that someday I will enjoy cooking...or that I'll be good at it.  Maybe it'll be once I get a kitchen with more counter space and a dishwasher.  Maybe I just need to find the right recipes.  Or maybe it will be when I have someone to cook for, or someone to cook with, that I finally come around to the culinary arts.  

Proverbs 31:15 describes a wife of noble character:

“She gets up while it is still dark; she provides food

for her family and portions for her servant girls.”

fiddlesticks…two strikes.