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I recently got "America's Test Kitchen: Let's Get Cooking" for the Nintendo DS. I'm currently using it to help teach my little brother how to cook.
Besides grilled cheese, I don't think he's made anything that hasn't come out of a box. He'll live off of Kraft mac and cheese and ramen noodles if he wants. I think he needs to learn how to cook. He wasn't all for the idea at first, but in my defence I gave him reasons for learning how to cook. 1. One day I will move out of Mom's or he'll move out of Mom's or Mom won't be around or I'll have moved out and Mom isn't around. In any case, there won't be anyone to cook for him. 2. For the hypothetical scenario that Kraft and Maruchan have their factories flooded just like the makers of Eggo waffles did and there is a shortage of mac and cheese and ramen noodles. But the most important reason of all: 3. Knowing how to cook is one of the ultimate ways to impress chicks. For this last one, I explained the time my last ex first tried cooking me breakfast one morning. I ended up cooking breakfast in the end because after breaking his third or fourth egg I offered to make it. But I still thought that was sweet of him for trying. "If I think its sweet for him just trying to make breakfast, just imagine how far cooking your potential girlfriend a pot roast will take you!" We've made two recipes so far. The first was Beef Stroganoff. He learned a lot from that one: mincing, draining the fat after cooking hamburger, making a sauce, putting salt in the water for noodles, substituting ingredients, how you're not supposed to drink the cooking wine, making sure you have pot holders when cooking with a cast iron skillet, and why he of all people should wash their hands before cooking anything. It was delicious! The second recipe was Chicken Piccata. The recipe called for half a lemon and I thought the lemons we had were quite small so I ended up telling him to use a whole one. The sauce was a bit sour. That's when he learned about doctoring up a recipe you screwed up. It turned out pretty decent, but I’m sure it would have been better if I had listened to the recipe and used half a lemon. Today we're going to try making a Maple Glazed Roast Pork Loin. It'll be a learning experience for me, too, because I get roasts in theory, but haven't had experience with them outside of making Thanksgiving turkey. It took me forever to find butcher's twine for this! Hopefully all will go well. Wish us luck! |
What a good sister you are! And this builds your relationship with your brother, too, You are so smart, and he is smart for listening to you!
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If you have an old-fashioned hardware store, they should have butcher's twine there by the ball. This is if you ever run out of what you've already bought and need more.
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just make sure you teach him how to clean up when hes done to..lol love it when dh cleans the kitchen
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Originally Posted by chris_quilts
If you have an old-fashioned hardware store, they should have butcher's twine there by the ball. This is if you ever run out of what you've already bought and need more.
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Originally Posted by cashmommy11
just make sure you teach him how to clean up when hes done to..lol love it when dh cleans the kitchen
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All kids should know how to cook basic meals, do laundry, by the time they turn 18 if not sooner. Good For You!
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Originally Posted by azdesertrat
All kids should know how to cook basic meals, do laundry, by the time they turn 18 if not sooner. Good For You!
We're going to get the roast going pretty soon. It looks delicious on the cooking software. |
The roast was awesome. It was very moist and had a sweet maple and cinnamon glaze that had sort of spicyness to it. Zach asked me what's the point of wrapping the roast in twine and it occured to me that I don't really know. I've watched a lot of cooking shows and own two cooking softwares and one cooking game for the DS and none of those things ever explained the purpose for wrapping a roast in twine. Well, whatever the reason the roast was delicious. Zach said he'd even make it again and that glaze was to die for. Must be doing something right if he wants to cook something again and its not out of a box or freezer.
When I get out of my bout of laziness I'll upload the picture I took of the roast. |
The twine holds the roast together so that you have a piece of meat to carve/eat versus pieces of meat to find and pick out of the pan. Hope this helps. :) :)
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When my boys were small I had them pick out what they wanted to eat for one night a week then I was "mean" and made them help me make it. Now my youngest will ask every now and then if he can make something. Myabe someday your brother will thank you.
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Here's a picture of the roast from the other night.
[IMG]http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q...s/100_0067.jpg[/IMG] Last night after work I saw a heart shaped waffle iron for $15. I think I'm going to get one next paycheck. I think I remember seeing a recipe for waffles in America's Test Kitchen. If not, I know Alton Brown has one. I think learning how to make our own waffles would benefit us both. In my case, it would add to my cooking repitoire. In Zach's case, it would come in handy if there's ever another shortage on Eggo waffles and chicks would be impressed by a guy who can make waffles from scratch. I know I'd be impressed if a guy could make homemade waffles. |
I bought that waffle iron that makes heart shaped waffles. I'm so glad I did!
Zach and I just got finished making Buttermilk Waffles. Okay, I made most of them. We both made the batter. He did make a few batches. His third batch offered a lesson: Always use cooking spray before each batch of waffles. His third batch got stuck to the bottom of the waffle iron. He got discouraged after that so I decided to make the rest of them. But he did really good on the other two batches he made. So Zach made a total of six heart shaped waffles...nine counting the ones that got destroyed from being chiseled out and even those looked good. Well, the tops of them anyways. So I consider that a win. Mental note: Waffle irons are HARD to clean. Cleaning it is like cleaning a skillet and a grill grate at the same time. Trying to get in between those squares on a waffle iron is NOT easy! Hence the valuable lesson on cooking spray. The waffles were delicious! Eggo can't hold a candle to what came out of my waffle iron. It took a while to get through all that batter (my iron makes smaller waffles), but it actually wasn't all that hard to make and well worth the time to make. Can't seem to find the camera so no pictures of golden brown heart shaped waffle deliciousness. Aaaaw. |
My boys both had to take home ec in high school. I remember the first things that they made were orange julius's and egg mc muffins. They were both so pleased with themselves, so guess what we had for dinner?
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So nice of you to teach your brother to cook...He will thank-you on down the road for doing this...Oh the roast does look so yummy makes me want one now.Thanks for sharing(:)
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Originally Posted by mountain-moma
So nice of you to teach your brother to cook...He will thank-you on down the road for doing this...Oh the roast does look so yummy makes me want one now.Thanks for sharing(:)
We devoured the waffles, by the way. |
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