Can you cook?

What skill level do you have? What's your specialty?
I consider myself competent to good. Nouveau country/comfort is my liking.

Mrs bearfan hasn't cooked in over 8 years. I am good at bbq and deer meat dishes.

Maybe the next time Texas DU'ers have a get together it will be right when you are stocked up :D

Or we can all go to E's ranch and do a cook out!

I think I ate my body weight in that stuff on Super Bowl Sunday.

I can vouch for Bearfan's culinary skills. :9

of course I can cook! Hamburgers and French fries are my specialty.

I'm fairly proficient in the kitchen. I can cook some Greek, Russian, Italian, and German dishes as well as traditional American stuff. I can't bake bread or pastries to save my life.

I make killer lasagne, chicken marsala, beef stroganoff, seafood gumbo and crab cakes. Those would have to be my specialty.

I, also, love cooking comfort food like chicken tetrazinni and potato soup.

I can kill, maim and destroy with a little Brinkman smoker. i can make ribs that will make your tongue slap the brains out of your head. I would put them up against any ribs out there, save Dreamland BBQ in Tuscaloosa or Ed's BBQ in Gainesville, if it is still there.

...my ex-wife is my ex; I was better in the kitchen than she was. I read/buy cookbooks for fun...it started as an extension of bar tending at home. ("Spanish omlet to go with that Mimosa?")

I make wonderful things out of leftovers (stirfry them with curry and rice etc).

I've made a few semi-complex gourmet dishes, but mostly focus on basic meals.

do hard boiled eggs and heat up pot pies, but the men in my family inherited the skill. I have no talent at cooking, nor any desire.

:shrug:

Signed up for one of those government funded job corps centers in the 80s down south. Asked for auto mechanics, but since I'm female, they sent me to cooking school!

my specialty is baking.

My 'skill level' would be somewhere around 'medium-high', I'd say. I usually prefer to cook plain, old-fashioned 'country cooking' dishes and desserts, normally, although I'm beginning to experiment with Italian and certain types of Chinese cusines. :)

My husband is so picky that I don't really do much real cooking that involves doing it completely from scratch. I do sometimes when he is gone because being experimental is really the way to figure out how to make something really tasty, although it can fail too. As far as what I make well consistantly, I make some kick ass chili.

:-)

That's one step ahead of me!

I would like to get some professional training in knife skills.

:)

At least we have some good, sharp knives, so they're clean cuts. (Jagged knife cuts are worse.)

I do know my way around the basics, but beyond that, I'd say I make damn good soups, and I'm getting there on baked goods (although I still can't make a pastry crust that both tastes good and looks good).

because of their colonial past? I've never eaten Vietnamese but hear they do like to serve many things on baguettes like the French which I thought was interesting

of french and southeast asian ingredients. It is a beef consome with asian noodles and cilantro, vietnamese fish sauce, sliced beef or shrimp, chilies and asian basil. If you find a place that serves it you should try it. It's pronounced "fuh"not "foe" or "poe". Enjoy!

get theee to the classics: Escoffier <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0750602880/qid=1082398007/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/104-3926437-1430348> (yes, it's expensive, yes, it's technical and complicated, yes it's bad ass, but you wouldn't become a philospher without reading Socrates, you can't become a chef without Escoffier.

Second, for knife skills, get The Professional Chef it's all you need.

and yes, I dabble, but knowing and cooking with professionals has humbled me. So I am decent, I suppose, for an amateur, I can follow a recipie.

Became a FoodTV junkie about a year and a half ago, and have learned that I truly love to cook.. my speciality lately seems to be marinades, but I also make the best "spaghetti con aglio e olio". Even better than my very very Italian mom makes it.

Clam chowder (both red and white), all the types of meat dishes, chicken baked fried bbq'd and souped, chili, several stews, several different spaghetti sauces, several different fish dishes...

Made eh-tu-fe(sp) last night.

:D

I can follow a recipe and not screw it up. Anytime I want to make anything other than real basic fare, a cookbook will be seen propped open nearby.

I probably do stir fry better than anything.

We do a lot of pretty basic stuff, try to work in a new recipe once a week or so...

I love to cook and others love to eat what I cook. My specialty is sauces.

I've thought of opening a restaurant, too. Figures.

My specialties are all vegetarian, and mostly vegetarian variations of basic dishes. I also make a few Italian dishes, but they are the type I would like but that wouldn't appeal to customers. I experiment a lot with other people's recipes, but the ones I create are simple, often using farmer's market finds.

Well, at least he could until he died.

Me... I guess I can cook, but I don't consider myself highly skilled (and certainly not highly trained) cook. I have a grasp of the basics and tend to just wing it, most of the time.

Sometimes I surprise myself, other times... well. Let's just say I'm thankful for my garbage disposal.

indian; asian; continental...

but I'm learning. I like BBQ the best

Degree in hotel-restaurant management, was a chef for many years. Finally burnt out and went into Technical Writing/Training (better pay and hours!). Now looking forward to my fourth career (was also a professional musician for several years in my youth).

When I feel like it, it's my idea of fun. I can cook Chinese, Thai, Mexican, Creole/Cajun (home cooking for me) to name a few. :thumbsup:

I don't know what "skill level" I have. A lifetime of cooking to keep a family fed. I've never taken cooking classes or been interested in collecting "recipes." I pretty much do my own thing. But I don't like cooking, so I don't do it often anymore.

Some specialties:

Chili
Stuffing
homemade soup of many sorts
Bread

with a limited repertoire of things I can do well - mostly meaty things because I get more practice with them.

But I haven't felt the need/been allowed to cook for a long time - my girlfriend is an absolutely amazing cook!

V

but I'm certainly not a gourmet.

I have a lot of really good recipes, some handed down from my folks and some I made up myself.

When I come home from work most nights, I usually throw something on the grill (if I've been organized enough, it will have been marinating all day long) and have a fresh vegetable with it.

I've been doing most of the holiday meals for my family for some time now. My specialty is the standing rib roast we have on Christmas, and my stuffing at Thanksgiving.

I'm also really good at soup. This past weekend I made homemade pea soup. Later this week, I'll have homemade chicken soup. I also make a mean fish chowder.

I adore cooking.

I don't really have a specialty, but love cooking French, Italian or Greek. Especially pastas, chicken cacciatore, or cassoulet. I'm a pretty good baker, and it seems the more complicated the recipe, the more I enjoy the process of doing it.

My piece de resistance so far was Christmas 2002. I made a crown roast (forgot to put the little hats on the legs, but still...), an orzo and wild rice pilaf, asparagus en croute, fresh baked bread, and a buche de noel.

One of these days I'm going to try Peking Duck. That'll be my biggest challenge.

I have a huge cookbook collection and like to make something different every day, but of course I have some favorite recipes too.

I cook mostly vegetarian meals. I think my greatest compliment was from a friend who has Italian roots. He said I cook better Italian food than his mom :-).

I love cooking, but I get really stressed when I cook for other people, when I cook for myself I can eat it if it's nice or bin it if it's crappy. But when you cook for other people (especially young ladies) it has to turn out well.

Anyone got a good recipie for Chocolate tarte?

and grew up in a culinarily talented family. So yeah, I can cook.

I'd say I'm better than average. Especially for someone my age (27). I have most basic techniques down pat and can assemble tasty meals from whatever is in the fridge/freezer/pantry. I don't really have a specialty or any genre of food that I do more than others. I am particularly good at using the saute pan and making various pan sauces.

I am also a pretty good baker. I can make a wide variety of breads. My biggest weakness are pastries and sweets, but my husband and I would probably weigh 400lbs if I was really good at making them. But I can through together a mean fruit cobbler or batch of brownies, so that's good enough for us.

sort of like :

TJ's special red clam chowder:

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
16 oz. can Baby clams in juice
2 cups Dry white wine
2 To 3 cups bottled clam broth
1/4 pound Salt pork
1 large Onion
2 Stalks celery
2 Cloves garlic
1 bn Flat leaf (Italian) parsley
2 Bay leaves
2 Sprigs fresh thyme
4 Ripe tomatoes
1 tablespoon Tomato puree
2 large red potatoes
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Cayenne pepper



Finely dice the salt pork. Fry the salt pork slowly in a large pot over low heat to render the fat. Transfer the cracklings with a slotted spoon to a paper towel to drain. Meanwhile, finely chop
the onion and celery. Mince the garlic.

Finely chop the remaining parsley. Peel, seed and coarsely chop the tomatoes. Peel and dice the potatoes into a bowl of cold water to prevent them from browning.

Saute the onions, celery, garlic, in the rendered fat over medium heat for 3 to 4 minutes, or until soft but not browned. Add the tomatoes and tomato paste, increase the heat to high, and cook for 1 minute. Add the Baby clams in juice, and the wine. Add the potatoes, reduce the heat, and simmer for 8 to 10 minutes, or until tender. Add the slat peppr, and cayenne peppr to taste.

Garnish the chowder with the chopped parsley and the salt pork cracklings and serve at once.

Serves 8.

If it's not micro-waveable, I don't cook it.

oh, I'm a gumdrop
a sweet lollipop
a brook trout right out of the brook
and what's more, baby, I can cook!

no, the girl ain't tellin' no lie
she can broil, she can fry
she can sauté, my, oh my . . .

But Mrs. V. is the master chef in the house. You haven't lived 'til you've had her grilled teriyaki salmon.

I've gotten better. I'd cook more often, but cooking for one is not always easy.

Specialty? My crab cakes rule the planet! (IMHO, of course ;-) ) Also, I like my vodka cream sauce for pasta. I tweaked another recipe a tad.

but it's only because I stretch myself to try to do new things all the time and accept failure well. I have encountered it with cooking often enough, heehee. I don't bake really, but I have worn out the cookbooks I love. I feel like I'm the west coast version of Dean and DeLuca. I do mostly continental cuisine and I love great presentation.

My Dad liked my cooking, but he is gone. I cooked for my mother when she had recent hip-replacement surgery, since my aunt browbeat me into it, and all the homemade soup, pasta and quiche I made is just rotting in the refrigerator. Apparently, she prefers frozen dinners. Ick! I am a devotee of the Food Network! I used to print out recipes everyday, until I realized I would probably never make them.:-(

Actually, I love to experiment, but my wife rules the kitchen with an iron oven mitt.

I'm one of those "takeout every night" guys.

I don't have a speciality, though.

......if my culinary arts are a delight? :evilgrin:

and it was sensational. You are a great cook!!

Grew up in a BBQ restaurant in Southeast Ga.

Taught how to cook Southern style from my grandmother.

Taught how to cook cajun by a little coon ass woman from Baton Rouge.

My wife's mom went to the Cordon Bleu in London and I learned french style from my wife.

+

As long as they don't get too esoteric. I think I've finally mastered most of the basic skill set.

I'm most comfortable with vegetarian pasta dishes and soups/stews. I also am a pretty decent bread baker.

I cannot make things up as I go along, though, unlike some one particular person I know, who is an absolute master at whipping up fabulous, original dishes based on either whatever she happens to be thinking of, or whatever we happen to have available.

That kind of thing is way, way, way out of my league!

--Peter

My cooking is more of a necessity than an art form these days, but I tend to make things more from scratch to avoid processed junk regardless. I probably bake desserts and the like better than cook though.