Great story, man. Family cooked food -always- tastes better. And that’s such a great thing to help your son to be more prepared for cooking on his own later on.
What age?
BTW that looks awesome. I’ll be over.
That’s how I feel too. All the way around.
He really wanted me to make cheesecake this weekend. He likes it now that I’ve figured it out. But good lord…making cheesecake isn’t even really baking, it’s a freaking process. I said this to some friends on Slack. I was up until about 5am doing it the other day.
It’s gone now.
I’ve told him that next time he’s doing the process with me. And he was all, “Yep. Let’s do it!” And this was after I had him read the five (5!) page recipe I’d printed out.
He’s fourteen. It’s fun teaching him the way I do things, and it’s fun knowing he’ll go to his mom’s and do things differently there. My hope is this leads to him developing his own style. The important thing is that he understands the value of cooking for people. How it’s not just feeding them. It’s a matter of giving to them. Of caring for them. I can make something simple like…I dunno…a wok full of popcorn, and feel that way. And people in the room playing board games or whatever respond.
-xtien
You’re an awesome dad.
My mom was (is) a control freak so growing up she ruled the kitchen and never let us do anything (well, maybe toast). So when I first lived on my own I didn’t know what the fuck to do. Kudos to you.
Thanks for saying that. Really.
It’s hard to resist the impulse to say, “My way or the highway.” Even for something as simple as whether to rinse pasta or not. The thing that works for me is to start with stuff I know he already likes. He loves the way I make chicken already, so teaching him those techniques is easy. I won’t get any push-back on that. With other things you kind of have to bite your tongue and let him find his way.
I started cooking stuff at a young age, but simple stuff. Like reading the recipe on the chocolate chip cookie package and doing that. It wasn’t until I was in college, living in an apartment and trying to date college women, that I started to try to expand. That’s when I asked my mom for help and advice. The first thing I asked her was how to make artichokes properly, since that was one of my favorite meals. She taught me when I was home on break one time, and got all teary. “I used to get so annoyed when you’d come into the kitchen and steal a bite of whatever food I was trying to make. You did that all the time.”
“Sorry.”
“No. I miss that.”
Again…thank you.
-xtien
Agreed with the others, @ChristienMurawski. I wish I’d had moments like that growing up, but for the most part, I wasn’t interested, and mom didn’t go out of her way to pull me in. My mawmaw on my dad’s side, probably the great cook in the family, was famously independent and bossy in the kitchen, so the two cousins who inherited her recipe rolodex can mostly just hope they’re doing things the right way (who knows if the old woman actually followed the recipes as written?). Of course, those same cousins inherited mawmaw’s caginess and keep the rolodex to themselves, not letting anyone else see it. I hate that. When I was young, and she was alive, I just didn’t have an interest, and was picky as hell to boot. But I loved her red beans and rice, and her pancakes, so she made those for me every day when I visited. Dad says she’d have loved to have seen what I grew up into.
Anyway, sharing the kitchen with someone else is a really special kind of thing. You’re being an excellent dad doing so, and helping your kid grow there, and in so many other ways :)
Some curry tonight. Muttar paneer (fried cubes of Indian cheese with peas in a rich tomato curry) and aloo gobi (spiced potatoes and cauliflower) over some rice. It was a good meal :)
Goni Manchurian is a personal favorite. Aloo Gobi loses a bit on texture to it, but is mighty tasty in its own right
I’ll never understand that tendency. I mean, I get it for a person running a business. I see it all the time on cooking videos when the host asks what seasoning goes into the hot chicken, or how a barbecue sauce is put together. “It’s a secret!” I get that. But for family? What?
You remind me of a story my dad told me. My stepmom’s mother had a special recipe for cookies that she closely guarded. My stepmom wanted to learn how to make them so she could make them when she was dating my dad. Her parents weren’t crazy about my dad, to put it mildly. He was older than she was by more than ten years, and had a son from another marriage, and they were protective. Also…well…they had a thing about Polish people.
At any rate, my stepmom asked and asked for the recipe, so finally her mother copied it down for her and gave it to her. Only she left out or augmented a crucial ingredient and the cookies turned out really bad. My dad said they were barf-worthy bad. They both just tried to laugh it off.
Next time Dad visited her folks, my stepmom’s mother asked, “So how were the cookies?”
He knew what she was up to and said, “They were really really good. Your daughter can cook! Good job.”
The way he described the look on her face, trying to hide her shock, was priceless to me.
-xtien
Homemade broccoli soup tonight in the vitamix (first time making soup) with broccoli, lemon, and garlic roasted in the oven. The recipe could use some tweaking, but I couldn’t get over how thick and creamy the soup was for not having any sort of traditional thickening agent.
I don’t eat soup very often because stuff you get at the store tends to be high in carbs. This was one of the reasons I wanted the vitamix in the first place and it did not disappoint.
That sounds good. I would be happy for more details if you have the time.
Also…sorry to be dense but what’s the difference between a Vitamix and a regular old blender?
-xtien
Yes and no on are they different. They are still blenders, just with powerful motors. A Vitamix and other high tier blenders have motors so powerful that they can blend on high for a long time to to the point of heating what’s inside them, thus soup. See also: Blendtec (Will it blend?)
The Vitamix also has a very high degree of torque despite only having a relatively high wattage motor. The design of its blending jar also maximizes food contact with the blades. The end result is a judicious application of blending power to food that results in smooth, even blends very, very quickly. It’s a pricy blender to be sure, but all that money is paying for superior engineering and reliability, not gee whiz, pointless features like touchscreen displays and dozens of blending preset programs like you often find in other similarly priced blenders.
America’s Test Kitchen has some excellent videos on the subject on their YouTube channel, if you’re interested.
Jesus christ this sounds like a bad ad. I mostly just wish I had $400 to drop on a blender!
I’ve seen deals closer to $200 at times. Which is still a lot to drop on a machine I might or might not actually use, so I didn’t take advantage. But it’s definitely the caliber of blender I’d want if I were going to get one.
It has a 2hp motor, if that tells you anything. And it sounds like a shop vac when it runs at high speed. I bought a certified refurb one for 250 bucks with a 5 year manufacturer’s warranty and have been very happy with it so far. Made lots of almond butter and it is a cinch to do.
If anyone is interested, I’d avoid any models with the explorian name. These are made for Costco. They have a much shorter warranty, cheaper components, etc.
I was referring to the Vitamix 5200, which I’ve only ever seen go as low as about $300, and even then, extremely rarely (e.g. lightning sale). Man, if that thing ever did drop to $200, I’d be on it SO fast
I don’t use my blender all that much, probably because it kinda sucks but it’s also a pain to clean. Was reading the copy on the blendtec and it says you just add some water, a drop of soap, and it cleans itself.
My blender could maybe do the same thing? Hrm. Never thought of it. I just disassemble it and run it through the dishwasher every time. Probably use it a lot more if I didn’t have to do that.
My wife and I have been having smoothies for dinner a lot lately, in her attempt to lose weight, so I’d really love to have a Vitamix, but like many, I can’t afford one.
I am curious, though: do any of you own the Ninja line? Are they any good.
The first thing I always check on any blender is whether the drive connection is metal or plastic, but beyond that, it is hard to tell quality since they are a closed unit. I guess you have to rely on reviews.
Kinda depends how it’s built. For mine, stuff tends to get worked down into the rubber seal that sits between the blade-base unit and the blending-jar component, and doing a soap-water rinse run doesn’t really dig down in there very well (the water just doesn’t have the same kinda weighty viscosity to ooze on in, I guess?), though it does help clean the walls of the jar and the blades themselves.
I really got a lot out of these videos from ATK. Maybe others would enjoy :)
We have a ninja and love it. I really like the “mini ninja” that fits in the same attachment as it allows you to do things in small batches like scrambled eggs, coffee grounding, etc. To be honest, we probably use that attachment more than the larger one.
But when you use the larger one, man does it work great! Margaritas, emulsifying soup, pureeing are all great. It comes apart really easily so you can disassembled & put in the dishwasher.
You clean the vitamix the same way. It mostly works. With something really thick and sticky, like almond butter, it won’t get all of it, but it does clean the blades and the area at the base quite well, which is the tricky part. Rinsing wiping down the sides a bit is easy.