Anyone here like to cook?

Lately I've been looking at traditional Japanese recipes that I can cook for myself for lunch and stuff like that. It's pretty neat when it all comes together and turns out tasting well.

I know mostly basic stuff right now, sautéed garlic chicken or pork, Thai style omlets over rice among other real simple dishes that my mom cooked when I was growing up.

I like to cook I just don;t like cleaning up the mess afterwards! HA

Of course like any man I am a pro at the grill and my daughters say my burgers are the best in the world. Of course its all in the prep for a good burger.

I also make a great jambalya that I bring to work once or twice a year that my co workers always want me to make more often.

Otherwise we keep it pretty simple around the place as we are on the move a lot. Chili, stews, fried chicken, mashed taters type of things. And there have been many awesome creations from the crock pot.

Cooking itself is enjoyable and relaxing. Then Iook at the dirty pots, and stuff and I am like. Ugh really.

Lol I know the clean up can be a pain, especially since I do everything by hand right now. What I really miss is a full functioning kitchen all I have right now is this cheap hot plate that I got from Walmart and a microwave. Reality check on how much you take for granted when you live at home.

The food they serve on base is okay, but its so unhealthy. Cooking on my own proves to be a much better alternative.

Dude I am impressed that you cook with a hot plate and microwave! HA

My wife love kitchen gadgets so we have blenders, choppers, 4 different crock pots, all sorts of pans and skillets. So we typically have the right tool for the job. Plus our stove is gas. I hate trying to cook on an electric range. So my hats off to you for using what you have.

Would they let you use the base kitchen or whatever?

Well they have a kitchen that we can use in a day room for dorm members, but the appliances there suck, I waited for pretty much an hour trying to get their POS oven to heat up and gave up after a while. It's an electric stove/oven and the heating element is just a coil so it takes an eternity to get going. I'd have a better time using an easy bake oven.

The hot plate gets me by most things, I can pan fry small amounts of food and boil water on it (though that takes roughly 10-15minutes to bring to a boil) I got this microwaveable rice cooker that I use to make rice so its pretty convenient. I live in the old dorms on base, only medical and security forces/firemen get to live in the nicer ones that have a shared kitchen and all.

my oven is electric too and I hate it....always burns stuff on the bottom then it's raw on the inside. So I just make most stuff in the microwave now. I like to cook too

Like DL I like to but hate the mess it causes.

I can make some good stuff though. I've recently started to actually follow some recipes online before I go shopping rather than just throwing random stuff together. I most recently made some balsamic chicken with tomatoes and onions, it was good as shit.

damn that sounds good right now lol

Naw I hate cooking

But I do love to BBQ though

I hate to cook but I'm pretty decent at it. I've come up with some pretty tasty concoctions.

DRGN LRD 1213 wrote:I like to cook I just don;t like cleaning up the mess afterwards! HA

Cooking itself is enjoyable and relaxing. Then Iook at the dirty pots, and stuff and I am like. Ugh really.

Same here, but I rarely cook when its just going to be me eating...except I'll cook myself breakfast a good bit.

I did make a pretty good homemade spaghetti sauce a couple weeks ago...I generally don't like eating spaghetti with a store bought sauce, but with a good homemade sauce it is great.

Fuck. No.

I love to cook. Italian food, Chinese food, steaks, burgers, homemade stuff, even baking, I love to do it all. It's always awesome when it comes out tasting delicious. I never really follow any directions either. I used to make chilli a lot when I was living with my ex yet, and well I once wrote down how I made it. Every time since then though, it's turned out different, but still very delicious.

Captain Pirate Pineapple wrote:I love to cook. Italian food, Chinese food, steaks, burgers, homemade stuff, even baking, I love to do it all. It's always awesome when it comes out tasting delicious. I never really follow any directions either. I used to make chilli a lot when I was living with my ex yet, and well I once wrote down how I made it. Every time since then though, it's turned out different, but still very delicious.

That's the way to do it. I mix up my own special blend of herbs and spices to mix the ground beef for my burgers. My wife asked me once how much and what I put in and I couldn't tell her. She thought I was being an ass but I had to explain that I just have to do it.

I made Sesame Chicken last night and it was amazing. I might run off all the Chinese restaurants in my area if I start to sell the shit.

I love cooking...Ehat went to culinary school and I grew up cooking/baking with my grandma so we are avid foodies, haha. We make just about everything from scratch (including baked goods...bread, cookies, cakes, etc). We try to keep it semi-basic on weeknights, but there are definitely weeks that our menu sounds like a restaurant...its a little ridiculous sometimes. I mostly love to bake though (as anyone can tell who is friends with me on Facebook). I made an awesome homemade strawberry cake with strawberry puree filling and rum icing for Ehat's birthday a few weeks ago...yum!

Terry, I want the recipe for that...I love sesame chicken and that's one thing I haven't tried to make.

Terry do you have any good recipes for a cake that doesn't include chocolate? (I'm allergic I think, the stuff makes me ill and sick to my stomach most of the time) Nothing terribly sweet if possible. I'm trying to learn more stuff that I can cook on my own since it's way more cost effective than eating out every night.

Have you ever heard of mug cake? You actually "bake" it in the microwave. It's amazing, you would never think it would be good but it is. I've always made chocolate but I know there are recipes for vanilla and other flavors. You literally just mix everything into a mug and pop it into the microwave.

o.o that would work wonders since I live a dorm and don't have access to a good oven lol.

I should elaborate, certain european chocolates I'm okay with but American chocolate makes me sick for whatever reason (maybe some kind of chemical that they use when they process it, I don't know)

Current things I'm learning how to make is a beef noodle soup and an indian curry my mom makes that I absolutely love lol.

Desserts, I have no idea, I've never really baked anything before, other than the prep and toss into the oven cinnamon rolls and the like.

Indian food is another thing I've never messed with...not sure why, haha. Just never have. Desserts are actually pretty easy once you get the hang of them, at least basic ones. Ones I started making brownies and cookies from scratch I could never even think about making them out of a box...it's so easy to make them from scratch. And so much better...and healthier because you actually know what's in them, haha.

Yeah, google mug cake and try it out...it's amazing. I never would have thought you could make cake in the microwave and it'd actually be good, but it is. I have a recipe for a chocolate one that is to die for...it ends up like a backwards molten lava cake. And you can mix in whatever you want...peanut butter, nutella, etc. Throw some ice cream on top and you're good to go!

I'll have to try that one day, I'll be sure to take pictures and post em if my missions is successful lol.

Man, I was gonna try one of those there recipe things again but I forgot to look one up and make a list before going to the store

So I just found out that a lot of the ingredients that I need to make a traditional Japanese lunch and breakfast is available to me right on base at my local commissary. How awesome is that?!

All I'm missing is a decent cut of fish to cook up as well as some seasonings which shouldn't be terribly hard to find

I is excited!