Hi, my name is Sandi and I am a cookaholic. According to the internet, I am not alone.
Richard Atkins writes, “Now you may already be able to guess what cookaholism is but, like many other addictions, there are some clear symptoms that can be used both as warning signs of emerging cookaholism, and to diagnose the presence of the full blown version of this awful affliction. To practice diagnosis I suggest you think of a person you know who shows signs of being fanatical about cooking and try the following check list. The presence of any two of the following indicates a person at risk, three or more is a positive diagnosis while four or more indicates severe and acute cookaholism.”
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– The patients idea of a relaxing evening is trying a new recipe. The brain releases dopamine as they anticipate for example kneading and baking a loaf bread.
– The patient does not realistically take into account the size of the stove, the kitchen, or time when cooking several complex dishes.
– What honestly started out as one dessert ends up being three.
– You know you are certified cooking addict if you think there’s always room for one more chopping board, knife, pan etc.
– The patient’s social media, YouTube or Netflix recommendations are more than 50% cooking related .
– Nothing haunts a cookaholic like the tweaks they could make to a recipe the next time
1. Fish with Lemon Butter Sauce
If you need a meal that will be ready in less than 10 minutes, this is it. Tilapia fillets were what I had and they worked well. Serve it with rice, steamed veggies, a salad or even chips. It’s on my list of quick dinners and is very good.
2. Palestinian Flat Bread
One day YouTube recommended Bayoona’s videos which are really quite soothing. One Sunday while binge watching them, I saw this bread and was inspired to try it out. Since it was a spontaneous decision, I didn’t have time to buy za’atar. So I substituted with a topping made of oregano, ground cumin, salt and pepper— which in our minds worked quite well (at least until the day we eat the real thing). We had an Arabic inspired Sunday supper that night. The remaining bread was breakfast for the next few days. It keeps quite well in a ziplock bag.
3. Jamaican Bread Pudding
Let me start by putting this out there – my husband and I are not really fans of bread pudding, but I had to do something with the stale bread. This recipe is truly delicious. Bread pudding rose quite a few notches higher in our rankings.
Since baking is a science, I tend to stick to recipes closely (except for automatically reducing the sugar by half). This recipe though is very forgiving. So my intention was to half the quantities since I only had 2 cups of bread. But I also did not have rose water and I dislike nutmeg. And instead of melted butter, I used brown butter (just a few extra minutes of cooking on the stove). It tasted amazing! I will definitely be making this again.
4. Biscuits/Scones
This was a nice simple recipe but a fail for me. I cut them too thick, so they rose really high and didn’t quite cook in the middle. The hunt for a scone/biscuit recipe continues.
One of the things I like most about cooking is how humbling it is. You can never master cooking, you can only continue to learn and change as a cook.
Amanda Hesser of food52.com
5. Yossy Arefi’s Lemon Sweet Rolls
They look like cinnamon rolls but don’t have the loud presence of cinnamon. These are very delicate, almost floral.
6. German Bread
My grandmother’s youngest sister loved rye bread, black bread etc. She is the one who introduced me to and made me love the heavier European breads. This German bread recipe is quite good. It does call for lots of seeds and nuts (that I did not have), but I used whatever was on hand.
7. Lime Pickle
Achari ya ndimu—these are like preserved lemons but are limes instead and are spicy. They are delicious with everything.
8. Marcella Hazan’s bolognese sauce
One of my husband’s top 5 favourite meals is spaghetti and meat sauce. Marcella Hazan’s bolognese sauce keeps being referenced everywhere I turn, from books to blogs. So now that New York Times Cooking is available for those without subscriptions (don’t know for how long), I found the recipe.
It’s actually a perfect Sunday meal since it cooks long and slow (3 hours about). You can get on with the busy business of resting as supper intensifies in flavour and fills the home with delicious smells. Although not being Jewish, I have to admit that cooking beef in milk bothers my conscience somewhat. The milk though lends a creaminess to the meat that is incredible. As delicious as it was, the husband prefers a meat sauce that in real essence is heavily a tomato sauce (the taste buds want what the taste buds wants).
9. Bagels
The craving for bagels was real. A friend had watched the Joshua Weissman’s video and said her bagels turned out good. So after watching the two videos above, I combined ideas from both and had my first attempt at making bagels. They turned out pretty decent. They were not as dense as I was hoping so I have my eye on another video.
Thank you for stopping by.
thanks for this… i love cooking as well, not yet a cookaholic tho’ but with lockdown i now hunt down new recipes to try. Ciku