Tonight I talked to a profesional baker (just a random social thing),
and I came home thinking about cooking styles.

I enjoy chopping stuff, and frying and grilling, and adding things to
simmering sauces - things that might be characterized as "active".

I seldom bake or roast or do my mother's casseroles - things where you
do the work and eat an hour or two later - whatever comes out of the
oven.

As close as I come is rice or soup or the winter crock pot season.

Enough about me. My point is - as a half-assed socialogical survey -
are you an active top, or a passive bottom? (I know, I know; Please
don't make the obvious jokes. Until I typed this, I thought I was
asking a serious question. Sheldon - talk about how you use your stove,
or shut up)

Or are there another options?

In article >, bulka > wrote:

> Tonight I talked to a profesional baker (just a random social thing),
> and I came home thinking about cooking styles.
>
> I enjoy chopping stuff, and frying and grilling, and adding things to
> simmering sauces - things that might be characterized as "active".
>
> I seldom bake or roast or do my mother's casseroles - things where you
> do the work and eat an hour or two later - whatever comes out of the
> oven.
>
> As close as I come is rice or soup or the winter crock pot season.
>
> Enough about me. My point is - as a half-assed socialogical survey -
> are you an active top, or a passive bottom? (I know, I know; Please
> don't make the obvious jokes. Until I typed this, I thought I was
> asking a serious question. Sheldon - talk about how you use your stove,
> or shut up)
>
> Or are there another options?

I guess I swing both ways :-). I like the active prep and making
a meal come together with all components reaching completion as
needed for an enjoyable meal. But that often includes a largish
amount of inactive time when I can go and do something else (like
waste time on the net...)

It really depends on how busy I am. If I have the time I like a lot of
involvement in the kitchen and can stay in there all day. Other times it's
just more practical to put something together and it cook an hour or two, or
all day if need be. Bottom line for me is having something good to sit down
and tuck into.

When it comes to baking though, I loath making batch after batch of cookies
and would much rather bake a pie or cake. I hate repetitive tasks.

--
Wayne Boatwright @¿@¬
_____________________

bulka wrote:

>Tonight I talked to a profesional baker (just a random social thing),
>and I came home thinking about cooking styles.
>
>I enjoy chopping stuff, and frying and grilling, and adding things to
>simmering sauces - things that might be characterized as "active".
>
>I seldom bake or roast or do my mother's casseroles - things where you
>do the work and eat an hour or two later - whatever comes out of the
>oven.
>
>As close as I come is rice or soup or the winter crock pot season.
>
>Enough about me. My point is - as a half-assed socialogical survey -
>are you an active top, or a passive bottom? (I know, I know; Please
>don't make the obvious jokes. Until I typed this, I thought I was
>asking a serious question. Sheldon - talk about how you use your stove,
>or shut up)
>
>Or are there another options?
>
>
I'm not sure that your distinction is valid.

I seem to have spent most of the weekend chopping stuff, which has then
either gone into braised (pressured cookered, actually) ox cheek or
baked beans, both dishes where you do the work and then eat the result
much later.

This is weekend cooking, and cold weather food to boot. During the week,
and especially in warmer weather, I do things that cook more quickly.
They often involve rather less preparation than the slow food.

Baking is something else again. I don't bake much, on the grounds that
we'd only eat the resulting cakes and biscuits with undesirable
consequences for our waistlines. Though I confess that last week I made
a quince tart - that was very quickly prepared and cooked in 30 minutes,
but the quinces had taken 4 hours the day before.

Must away and fish the ham hock out of the beans, which should be done
any minute!

Christine

bulka wrote:

> Tonight I talked to a profesional baker (just a random social thing),
> and I came home thinking about cooking styles.
>
> I enjoy chopping stuff, and frying and grilling, and adding things to
> simmering sauces - things that might be characterized as "active".
>
> I seldom bake or roast or do my mother's casseroles - things where you
> do the work and eat an hour or two later - whatever comes out of the
> oven.
>
> As close as I come is rice or soup or the winter crock pot season.
>
> Enough about me. My point is - as a half-assed socialogical survey -
> are you an active top, or a passive bottom? (I know, I know; Please
> don't make the obvious jokes. Until I typed this, I thought I was
> asking a serious question. Sheldon - talk about how you use your stove,
> or shut up)
>
> Or are there another options?

You came to this line of thinking after talking to a baker -- a person who
is probably up to his elbows in dough kneading frenetically some of the
time, and is probably sitting around waiting for the dough to rise at other
times.

Rather than labeling them as active and passive, I'd label them as active
and PATIENT. Where patience is required in the kitchen, I've got it. But
there are some things which are meant to be prepared quickly and consumed
immediately, and I'm fine with that as well.

Taking either a "nothing but slow food" or a "made this minute" approach
will badly limit your culinary options.

Bob

bulka > wrote in :

> Enough about me. My point is - as a half-assed socialogical survey -
> are you an active top, or a passive bottom?

I mix it up also.

What really bothers me is recipes that "for best results" have to sit
overnight in the fridge to marinade for more flavor or dishes that taste
better the next day.

I want tomorrow's food to be ready to eat and taste good today, dammit!

Like homemade pasta and meatballs with garlic bread does! But for steaks,
chicken, coleslaw, potato salad, etc., etc.

Andy

"Michael Siemon" > wrote in message
...
> In article >, bulka > wrote:
>
>> Tonight I talked to a profesional baker (just a random social thing),
>> and I came home thinking about cooking styles.
>>
>> I enjoy chopping stuff, and frying and grilling, and adding things to
>> simmering sauces - things that might be characterized as "active".
>>
>> I seldom bake or roast or do my mother's casseroles - things where you
>> do the work and eat an hour or two later - whatever comes out of the
>> oven.
>>
>> As close as I come is rice or soup or the winter crock pot season.
>>
>> Enough about me. My point is - as a half-assed socialogical survey -
>> are you an active top, or a passive bottom? (I know, I know; Please
>> don't make the obvious jokes. Until I typed this, I thought I was
>> asking a serious question. Sheldon - talk about how you use your stove,
>> or shut up)
>>
>> Or are there another options?
>
> I guess I swing both ways :-). I like the active prep and making
> a meal come together with all components reaching completion as
> needed for an enjoyable meal. But that often includes a largish
> amount of inactive time when I can go and do something else (like
> waste time on the net...)

I prefer getting a meal together in stages throughout the day; I don't like
meals where you have to make things come together all at the same time.
When I cook that sort of meal, DH always is always working alongside me
(working together).

The best sort of meal for me is when I have two things left over, and add
two new things to it. This is why I prefer Indian cooking.
Dee Dee

Dee Randall wrote:

> "Michael Siemon" > wrote in message
> ...
>
>>In article >, bulka > wrote:
>>
>>
>>>Tonight I talked to a profesional baker (just a random social thing),
>>>and I came home thinking about cooking styles.
>>>
>>>I enjoy chopping stuff, and frying and grilling, and adding things to
>>>simmering sauces - things that might be characterized as "active".
>>>
>>>I seldom bake or roast or do my mother's casseroles - things where you
>>>do the work and eat an hour or two later - whatever comes out of the
>>>oven.
>>>
>>>As close as I come is rice or soup or the winter crock pot season.
>>>
>>>Enough about me. My point is - as a half-assed socialogical survey -
>>>are you an active top, or a passive bottom? (I know, I know; Please
>>>don't make the obvious jokes. Until I typed this, I thought I was
>>>asking a serious question. Sheldon - talk about how you use your stove,
>>>or shut up)
>>>
>>>Or are there another options?
>>
>>I guess I swing both ways :-). I like the active prep and making
>>a meal come together with all components reaching completion as
>>needed for an enjoyable meal. But that often includes a largish
>>amount of inactive time when I can go and do something else (like
>>waste time on the net...)
>
>
> I prefer getting a meal together in stages throughout the day; I don't like
> meals where you have to make things come together all at the same time.
> When I cook that sort of meal, DH always is always working alongside me
> (working together).
>
> The best sort of meal for me is when I have two things left over, and add
> two new things to it. This is why I prefer Indian cooking.

I also prefer putting meals together in stages. Breaking cooking down
into various steps makes it possible for me to assemble better (imo)
meals and a wider variety than I would be able to do if I were forced to
set aside a single block of time for meal prep.

Last summer my 10 yr old son flew out to Phoenix to visit my parents and
my sister. After a couple days my mother (an extremely reluctant cook)
called to ask why the boy was bugging her about supper at breakfast
time. I explained to her that first thing in the morning I'm not only
fixing breakfast, I'm also packing the kids' lunches and usually
starting dinner as well - maybe getting meat from the freezer, putting
stuff into the slow cooker or starting a sauce or a salad. "What's for
dinner?" is perfectly legitimate breakfast conversation in our household.

Kathleen