Dad and Mom were gone for a little over a week a little while ago. Before they left Mom told me this " you are going to do the cooking." I thought "hhhmmmm....this should be fun, I get a whole week to make what ever I so feel inspired to make."
The first recipe I made, the potatoes were barely done and the cookies I made had too much flour in them. The other cookies I made were a recipe I don't ever remember making before, but I 've gown up eating. So how does this work?? I followed all of those recipes to the T and they still didn't turn out.
What exactly is the secret to being a good cook??
Experience?? No, all though experience is probably the best way to unlock the secret, I don't believe it's totally found in experience.
I believe the secret of a good cook is found in her ability to read between the lines of a recipe.
You know how when you make a recipe for the first time it turns out kinda funny then the next time it turns out great cus you know how to do somethings different to make it better.
Maybe some would call this experience but I think its more then that.Of course the more you do something the better you get at it. But I don't think experience is everything. Experience reveals the language written in invisible ink in between the lines.What's written in between the lines may often be what our Mothers (or older sisters ) tell us to do. " Scald the milk before you pour it in the pudding, melt the butter, don't just soften it, add more flour"...and so forth. But then there is always those things that they forget to tell you like heating the pan before pouring on the pancakes. Believe me one time I forgot and I had to peel those pancakes off with tooth and claw. Well ok so I guess it was a little more like spatula and scratcher but any way I've never forgotten to let it heat up first since. :)
So if I am right and this is true that the secret of a good cook is found in correctly reading what is written between the lines. Then think about it....cooking is no drudgery, but an exciting adventure. Recipes are unpredictable ( at least for me they are ) you never know what might be written between those lines. So don't despair when you bake up a flop (I've done it lots) for you see, now you know what is written between those lines and next time it will be better; for before you only knew part of the recipe, now you know the whole.
I know now: that those cookies do NOT need the extra cup of flour and that a casserole with frozen potatoes in it will take more then an hour to heat through and that if I would have put honey instead of sugar and left the peanut butter out of the no bake cookies, they would have most likely tasted just like what I used to eat as a kid.
I'm so glad for older sisters and my Mom cus some times they are the best interpreters of what's written in between the lines.
Happy cooking!! And enjoy reading the secrets between the lines!!
