As a cook, what would the current you say to the old you?

The Late Night Gourmet

The Late Night Gourmet

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Everyone changes over time. We all do. I want to feel like I'm doing better as a cook than I did back then, and I owe a lot of that to the people on this forum.

My first post here was in April 2017, Toasted Cinnamon Coconut Ice Cream. At that point, I hadn't been seriously cooking for very long. My first picture looks good, but then again it's hard to screw up scooping ice cream into a bowl:

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But, as I look at other posts, I can see where I would have done things differently. Some of the things were sloppy and ill-conceived. I'd like to think that I've gotten better at my precision.

But, I can also see where I've gotten complacent. I rarely (more like never) try making a truly ambitious dish anymore. Maybe it's just the situation in the world over the past year, but my willingness to plunge into the unknown seems mostly gone. I would like to recapture that spark again, where I couldn't wait to try making something I've never made before. It's now more of a technical challenge than an exciting journey into the unknown.

It seems that, while the current me could teach the old me a few things about technique, the old me could still remind the new me about the thrill of cooking.
 
I don't think I've changed much, I take cooking not too seriously, prolly why I don't enter comps? But I do enjoy learning new stuff, from people from other countries, holland, Finland, Croatia and so on. The U.K. I'm familiar with and the lingo from murica is a bit odd. But on the whole I don't think I've changed, in always looking to improve my recipes. Example: family here last Saturday, I served entree of samosas, prolly the 20th time I've made them but I added a change that I never mentioned to anyone in the filling.,son says there's something different about them. Better as well.
So I'm still trying to up my game as well.

Russ
 
Probably just to slow down and relax in the kitchen, and I that's something future me could tell current me as well.

I'd also say to myself that I should be better at keeping track of things I've made. I'm still angry/a bit heartsick because I made something a couple of years ago that my wife said was the single best thing she's ever eaten, and with my Swiss cheese memory, I couldn't tell you what it was. I don't even know the generalities. I know it was a main dish/entree, but that's about it.
 
I'm still trying new things. Had never made panna cotta until the challenge. It wasn't difficult or time consuming, but I can see how if the right amount of geletin isn't used it could be soup or rubber. There are dishes we've made previously that I would like to have, but they take hours to make, hands on, and I just don't feel like doing them simply because I'm doing pretty much all the cooking lately given Craig's situation and I just don't have the energy. As it is, I feel like I never have a day off anymore (and I'm not whining or looking for sympathy, it is what it is for the time being) and I don't feel like spending that much time cooking.
 
rascal said:
Example: family here last Saturday, I served entree of samosas, prolly the 20th time I've made them but I added a change that I never mentioned to anyone in the filling.,son says there's something different about them. Better as well.
So I'm still trying to up my game as well.
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This is a great way to make things more interesting...and, in your case, better, too.

TastyReuben said:
Probably just to slow down and relax in the kitchen, and I that's something future me could tell current me as well.

I'd also say to myself that I should be better at keeping track of things I've made.
Click to expand...
I need to remind myself to slow down when I cook. Lately, it's because of my usual late start times with my prep, but it definitely was because of nervousness/uncertainty before.

I do find myself documenting what I make sometimes if for no other reason than because some specific thing I did might turn out to be really good. But, your experience serves as a reminder to write it down if what I did really worked.
 
TastyReuben said:
Probably just to slow down and relax in the kitchen, and I that's something future me could tell current me as well.

I'd also say to myself that I should be better at keeping track of things I've made. I'm still angry/a bit heartsick because I made something a couple of years ago that my wife said was the single best thing she's ever eaten, and with my Swiss cheese memory, I couldn't tell you what it was. I don't even know the generalities. I know it was a main dish/entree, but that's about it.
Click to expand...

That's the reason my daughter hounded me to write my recipes down. Took me a year but I did two copies, one of which she has, my son couldn't care less, when I'm gone he will mooch off his sister for stuff they love of mine. I made croquettes a week or so ago, I made from memory but I did a double check near the end, just to make sure I didn't leave anything out. I didn't.

Russ
 
Another thing I'd do is tell my younger self to be a little more balanced with my meal planning.

For a good part of my 20's-30's, I'd make something, like lasagna, and instead of balancing that out with a little lettuce salad or maybe some green beans, I'd say, "Forget it...I'll just have two helpings of lasagna," and that kind of laziness was part of the problem in driving my weight out of control.
 
TastyReuben said:
Another thing I'd do is tell my younger self to be a little more balanced with my meal planning.

For a good part of my 20's-30's, I'd make something, like lasagna, and instead of balancing that out with a little lettuce salad or maybe some green beans, I'd say, "Forget it...I'll just have two helpings of lasagna," and that kind of laziness was part of the problem in driving my weight out of control.
Click to expand...

In my 20s and 30s, I could eat a whole pan of lasagna, and maintain my weight. When I turned 40, my metabolism said, "I've had enough your your eating habits, I'm retiring. You're on your own."

CD
 
TastyReuben said:
I made something a couple of years ago that my wife said was the single best thing she's ever eaten, and with my Swiss cheese memory, I couldn't tell you what it was. I don't even know the generalities. I know it was a main dish/entree, but that's about it.
Click to expand...

Can't she remember either?
 
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