GUS (Gave Up Smoking) is a community support diary for Kossacks in the midst of quitting smoking. Any supportive comments, suggestions or positive distractions are appreciated. If you are quitting or even just thinking of quitting, please join us! We kindly ask that politics be left outside.
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Okay, so I'll just say this up front: I'm not much of a chef.
Oh, I can manage pretty well with the basics; I'm not the type to burn water or anything. I don't have any legendary kitchen fails darkening my culinary past. I've never single-handedly destroyed a bake sale or sent anyone to the E.R. with food poisoning. I can follow a recipe (most of the time). I can even invent one if I need to (okay, "invent" might be too ambitious a description...I can modify one pretty well).
But aside from a handful of tried-and-true baked goods that rise above the rest of my output, in most matters of cookery, I am thoroughly middling-to-average, with a side of "eh, it tastes all right I suppose..."
I'm just not into the process, I guess...I don't find chopping or peeling or stirring very relaxing. I rely on timers because damned if I know whether something looks done or not until it's perilously close to "oops, too late!" A lot of my more successful dishes are the end result of a bit of trial and error; anything that I don't think I could salvage with a few easy tweaks is banished to the [inedible] corn field like something from The Twilight Zone and we do not speak of it again. I have many creative gifts (for which I am most grateful), but a flair for the culinary arts is not one of them.
Which is too bad, because I like trying new things and I like a variety of foods---I'm just not that great at churning them out myself. I was a whiz with the take-out menu in my younger days, when I lived in bigger cities with a lot of fantastic restaurants with cuisines from all over the world.
Nowadays, as a nouveau-frugal homeowner in a town that is near (but not near enough for take-out) a famously foodie town (complete with food carts and buzz-worthy bistros and more than one gelato shop, not to mention a place that sells nothing but jerky), I do a lot more cooking. It's cheaper to dine in, and bring your own lunches to work, after all. Thank God for decent frozen entrees from Trader Joes!
I do have a few tricks I use to elevate the pedestrian things I slap together: I'm a big fan of fresh herbs and try to find $$ in the budget for those when I can. Squeezing a little bit of fresh lemon or lime juice on veggies and fruits (or chicken or fish!) can make something taste much brighter and more memorable...and can jazz up otherwise bland foods if you're on a diet that restricts salt or other tastes-good-but-bad-for-you things. Citrus zest can also make muffins, cookies, or quick breads taste better. I like to find unusual sauces, spices, or ingredients in Asian markets or the international section of the grocery store. Plain nonfat Greek yogurt can be substituted for oil in a lot of baked goods without sacrificing the moistness or fluffiness of the real thing. You can add pureed veggies and garlic to boring soup recipes and give them a little more oomph. Melt a little bit of dark or semisweet chocolate and drizzle it over fruit (or dip fruit in it) to make it more like a dessert, or take a cue from Mexican street food vendors and dust your fresh fruit with chile powder and spices.
Smokers tend to have a dulled sense of taste---we default to very sweet or very salty or very greasy food because we can't really appreciate the nuances of the recipes, so we rely on the intensity of those kinds of foods.
When we quit (and our tastebuds recover), it's like a party in our mouth, so a lot of us go a little nuts with the all-of-a-sudden-so-very-yummy-OMG!! food. It can be a battle for moderation---never the favorite thing of compulsive or addictive personalities---or the beginning of some bad food habits, but it can also be an opportunity to really appreciate new foods and dishes, or to revisit old favorites and realize they taste just the way you remember (but haven't been able to actually taste in a while).
But, y'know, like I said, I am no great shakes in the kitchen. I usually get my inspiration from recipes posted by other, more talented amateur chefs here at GUS, or from recipe boards on Pinterest, or the occasional restaurant meal.
In fact, we usually have a mind-boggling selection of tasty-sounding recipes posted by gchaucer2, but in her [work-related] absence, I thought I would throw it open to everyone else. I know flumpty is trying some new things, and Wordsinthewind is looking for ideas to add calcium without dairy...anyone else have a favorite dish they want to share, or some cooking tips? Any weird or wacky food favorites? Regional specialties? Kitchen triumphs? Dining disasters? Constant cravings? The kitchen is open!
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