Anne Can Cook

I thought I'd do a food meme (and I'm sure this is ancient) for fun, and as a way to lay out my kitchen philosophy. Well, I say kitchen philosophy, but what I mean is food I like vs. food I don't like.

1. Can you cook? If yes, do you like to cook?
Anne can cook! Or at least I try to. My friends and I seem perfectly happy with my cooking, but my boyfriend doesn't seem to agree.

2. When do you eat with your whole family?
Since I don't live near my parents anymore, I only really eat with my whole family on holidays or visits. Holidays involve large, home cooked meals. Brief visits usually involve pizza.

3. What do you eat for breakfast?
Usually granola and milk and a cup of black coffee. Sometimes I mix it up and eat my granola with yogurt instead.

4. When, where and how do you eat on weekdays?
I eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I also usually snack twice a day, and that snack is usually a granola bar or a cookie. For lunch, I usually eat at my desk at work. For breakfast and dinner, I usually eat on the couch at home. I am really bad about sitting at the table.

5. How often do you eat out (in a restaurant)?
Pretty rarely. When I visit my boyfriend we tend to go out more than we stay in, and I visit him about once a month. Otherwise, I tend to stay in.

6. How often do you order delivery/take-out?
I ordered pizza for the first time since I moved here two weeks ago. I've been living in the area for eight months, and in my current apartment for three.

7. Regarding no. 5 and 6: Say there weren’t financial reasons would you do this more often?
I don't know about more often because I do love to cook. I think if money weren't an issue, I'd go to fancier places. I really enjoy hoity toity presentation.

8. Are there any “standard dishes” you serve regularly?
Pasta. There's a sesame chicken recipe I keep coming back to. Yesterday's curry frequents my kitchen pretty often, as well. At this point in my cooking development, though, I'm so busy trying to learn how to cook new things that I don't have a lot of staples.

9. Have you ever cooked for more than 6 persons?
Not on my own. I've helped my grandma in the kitchen for Thanksgiving, though.

10. Do you cook every day?
No, because sometimes you just want frozen pizza. I probably cook 2-4 days out of the week.

11. Have you ever tried recipes from blogs?
All the time!

12. Who cooks more frequently at your home?
I live alone, so me.

13. And who cooks better?
Me, and sometimes me.

14. Do you cook totally different compared to your mother/parents?
Yes and no. I think I cook weirder stuff than my mom, but I still defer to her methods for things like baked chicken and pasta.

15. If yes, do you nevertheless eat at your parents?
Sure! Even if Mom uses Velveeta, I still love her and her cooking.

16. Are you a vegetarian or could you imagine being one?
I could probably do it. I do not eat beef or seafood, and so I would just have to cut poultry and bacon. I would miss those things, but I could go without.

17. What would you like to cook which you haven’t dared to make yet?
There are a lot of things I'd like to try. Whole roasted chicken. Macaroons. Anything complicated at all. It's partly a resource issue. I mean, I don't even own a cupcake tin right now.

18. Do you prefer cooking or baking?
I'm pretty fond of both. I try not to bake too often, though. I have a really large sweet tooth.

19. What is your greatest misery in the kitchen?
I hate doing the dishes. Hate hate hate. And I don't have a dishwasher. It sucks.

20. What do you dislike?
Seafood. Green beans (and really all beans, except chickpeas). Fruit, except mangoes, strawberries, blackberries, and the occasional apple. I don't dislike beef, but I don't eat it because it upsets my stomach. Bleu cheese--I think it tastes like crayons. Tomatoes. Country music. Jane Austen novels. Romantic comedies.