Exploration of Cooking

I’m going to break from the normal jib jab here and write about a new hobby… cooking. When I broke my ankle last year I found myself highly restricted mobility wise – for the first few months I had to keep my foot elevated because of all the swelling – my foot is still swollen almost 8 months later. After those few months I decided I needed a new hobby to occupy some of my time and try to restore some life balance. In my high-school and college days I worked for a high-end caterer in New Jersey. Those were longs weekends but the money was great and the experience around the kitchen and chefs was exciting and interesting.

I’ve always grilled… but never really put together a “formal” dinner outside of burgers, hot dogs or chicken and rice. So for the past few months I’ve been toying around with various recipes trying different things here and there. I’ve found a new appreciation for the effort that goes into preparing a good meal – and the cleanup afterwards! ;)

There are literally thousands of websites and YouTube videos out there around cooking and recipes. Here are a few that I enjoy following;

Laura in the Kitchen – YouTube
Laura’s easy going manner and presentation is great. Her husbands camera work is especially good which makes her videos easy to watch and follow. She has a staggering 1300 recipes on her website and channel.

SAM The Cooking Guy – YouTube
Sam has a captivating personality and makes every video a lively affair. He’s definitely capitalizing on the current political atmosphere with his “MAKE AMERICA COOK AGAIN” merchandising.

So Tasty – YouTube
A great YouTube channel with good cinematography and video editing. I think almost as much care and love goes into the videos as the actual cooking.

Home Cooking Adventure – YouTube
Another great YouTube cooking channel with awesome cinematography.

I won’t be posting any recipes – because I’m not making any original recipes. Perhaps I’ll just post a few pictures (food porn) and see what people say. I’m excited to try my hand at baking.. those Boston Creme doughnuts look delicious!

Those are some of the dishes that I’ve crafted over the past four months… I continually forget to take a picture before I jump in and start eating. I’ve been doing a little light frying and deep frying – that’s all new to me but fun and exciting.

I also made a Buffalo Chicken sandwich a few weeks back which was delicious (the picture was terrible and didn’t do it justice). I need to search up some pork recipes – I hated pork chops growing up – I’m wondering if I just had it all wrong in my youth.

The only dish above that was well received by the entire family was the Chicken and Bacon with Penna Pasta, Red Peppers and Parmesan. It’s difficult cooking for teenagers.. they don’t yet know what’s really good and god forbid they actually listen us adults $@&!.

Let me know what you think… if anything.

Cheers!