Thursday, January 15, 2009

Cooking Curiosity

I didn't do any special baking or cooking tonight, so I thought I would have a fun post to learn more about all of you fabulous readers and bloggers out there. Just comment with your answers!

1. Who taught you your baking/cooking skills?
2. What is your favorite cookbook?
3. What is your favorite ingredient to use when cooking/baking?
4. What is your favorite online recipe site?
5. What is you earliest memory of cooking/baking?

I'll start with my answers:
1. A little bit mom/grandma and a little bit self taught....and still learning!
2. I love my How To Cook Everything Vegetarian Cookbook.
3. I am sure you will all guess this one...pumpkin.
4. Kraftfoods.com and recipezaar.com
5. Making small cakes with my Easy Bake Oven.

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31 comments:

Meghann said...

1. My Daddy taught me everything I know, well him and the Food Network :)
2. THe Internet?
3. Garlic
4. The Blog World
5. I remember helping my Dad cook in the kitchen, he would let me stir when the stove was on low heat

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

1.) Mom and Food Network :-)

2.) Veganomicon... but I have several!!

3.) Dried fruit

4.) Fatfree Vegan Kitchen and Martha Stewart's site

5.) Helping my mom make pineapple upside-down cake

Unknown said...

1. Mom and the food network
2. Ellie Krieger's The Food You Crave
3. peanut butter
4. foodblogsearch.com
5. i remember the first time my bf and i went to make blueberry pancakes by ourselves... they came out green :)

Barbara Bakes said...

This is a fun post!

1. I learned a lot from the cooking shows on TV.
2. I still turn to the Betty Crocker cookbook I got for my wedding 30 years ago frequently. Although lately my first source is the internet.
3. Right now I try using at least some whole wheat pastry flour in most my recipes
4. Allrecipes
5. We were assigned a night to cook each week because my mom was a single working mom, so I made a lot of hamburger helper.

Anonymous said...

Fun post!!!

1. Self-taught mostly. Some from my mom and some food network too!
2. Veganomicon or Eat Drink and Be Vegan. Uhh I have so many it's hard to choose
3. Soy yogurt for baking (it makes everything so moist) and freshly ground black pepper for cooking (it makes everything taste better!).
4. FatFree Vegan Kitchen
5. Trying to make grilled cheese! I had already mastered the ramen noodles so I had to start making my other fav food. It was going good until I tried to flip it and the cheese fell out into the pan! haha

Anonymous said...

1. the memory of my grandma's cooking, my mom a little bit, mostly myself.
2. Jean-Georges
3. Butter
4. foodnetwork and epicurious
5. Helping - my mom with homemade ravioli and on my own - making a cream of wheat and forgetting to season it with anything.

Anonymous said...

1. Grandma and Uncle-both amazing cooks, chefs and bakers!
2. I have a really good Cooking Light magazine special that explains how to prep basic ingredients and gives some great recipes
3. Garlic!! Never too much :D
4. allrecipes.com, and bloggies
5. I ALWAYS helped my grandmother make her special secret brownies, JUST to lick the bowl! I'd get mad if she didn't leave enough :D And making paella with her for my dad, YUM! She was Spanish so it was perrrrfect!

Erica said...

What a fun survey!

1. My mama and myself! I also have got some great tips from my MIL!
2. Favorite cookbook hmmmm Better Homes and Gardens!
3. Favorite ingredient? Changes all the time! Right now I have a thing for chickpeas. I think they go in every dinner haha.
4. I could never pick one! Google Blog search, cooking light, foodnetwork
5. Cookies with my mommy :)

Wandering Coyote said...

1. My mom/trial & error/culinary school.

2. Just one? Hm...Beyond the Great Wall.

3. Chocolate, cilantro.

4. Epicurious, Canadian Living

5. I also had an easy bake oven in which I made small cakes!

teresa said...

Hi Megan! I love your blog, you've got some great stuff here! To answer your questions:
1. I discovered the Food Network channel a few years ago and got completely hooked.
2. I usually buy a Cooking Light magazine every month and then drool over it, I love that magazine!
3. Onions and garlic, you can't go wrong.
4. Probably cooking with my mom, those were good times!

Carla said...

1. Home economic classes and myself. Surprisingly, my parents didn't contribute to it except maybe how to boil pasta.

2. Dorie's Baking: From My Home To Yours

3. GARLIC!

4. recipezaar.com (username is carlamoose)

5. I would take my mom's Family Circle magazines and tear out the recipes, just because of the pictures.

Now I feel sad because I really don't have memories of cooking or baking with my parents. And I never grew up knowing my grandparents. Honestly, I don't know how I turned out the way I did with food haha

Joie de vivre said...

1. My mother, grandmother and mostly self taught
2. Really too hard to whittle down. I think I've made the most from Vegan World Fusion. I love the photos from that book and just think how they have to use certain ingredients to get certain flavors is so creative.
3. Chocolate
4. King Arthur Flour blog
5. Making things from my first Holly Hobby cookbook.

Bob said...

1) My mom started teaching me and I've learned from everyone else I can since.

2) My "Two Fat Ladies" cookbook. It's hilarious.

3) That would be butter. For both.

4) Bakespace

5) I used to sit on the counter when I was a little kid and help my mom bake all the time. I would stir things, mostly. And eat chocolate chips. ;)

Unknown said...

1. My mom and Cooking shows on PBS (before FoodNetwork!)
2. Fannie Farmer
3. Chicken
4. Googling for ingredients
5. I don't remember... it seems like i've always cooked/baked. *G* I remember my sisters first attempt at homemade biscuits... she thought baking powder and baking soda were the same thing!!!

The Blonde Duck said...

Stopped in to say hello! What a cute meme.

Rebekah said...

1-mom and grandma and some self taught
2. i really love all my cookbooks, I don't think I have a favorite
3. onions or chocolate
4. allrecipes.com and the various blogs I follow
5. watching my grandma,my aunts, and my mom cook.

Anonymous said...

Hmm, lets see...

1. My Mum and otherwise mainly self-taught
2. That's a hard one - I reckon it would have to be Elizabeth David's English Bread and Yeast Cookery
3. Ginger (for both)
4. I scan a lot of them but probably the BBC food site
5. Watching Mum make apple tarts and then quickly moving on to making them myself - I don't know at what age - 8, 9 maybe - that and nurturing an early ginger obsession by making my own ginger cakes, gingerbread, ginger anything (that has stayed with me, clearly :) )

stephchows said...

1. My mom/dad/nana.
2. I don't really have one...I like to take things I find on line and mess with them and create my own :)
3. Chocolate :)
4. Too many to say!! you can look at my foodblogs I read list on the right side of my blog :)
5. I think the first thing I learned to make was scrambled eggs, taught to me by my Nana. You had to use a fork to toss the egg around in the pan... it totally killed the nonstick and drove my mom nuts hehe :)

Tangled Noodle said...

1. My mom and our housekeeper;
2. Hmmmm . . . there isn't just one;
3. Beans, beans, beans!
4. Allrecipes.com and Cookinglight.com
5. Making drop biscuits with Bisquick - I was so proud I could 'bake'!

Tami said...

1. Who taught you your baking/cooking skills?
my mom, growing up and still to this day she makes wedding cakes for family and friends, her first job was in a bakery

2. What is your favorite cookbook?
the internet/blogs, you get real advice
3. What is your favorite ingredient to use when cooking/baking?
can i say Crisco? my favorite thing to bake is whoopee pies.

4. What is your favorite online recipe site?
too many to pick from....

5. What is you earliest memory of cooking/baking?
as i said, my mother made wedding cakes and we would wait and wait until she was all done and she would squirt frosting right into our mouths from the frosting bag....now i do the same to my kids, the first time i did it, i nearly cried! with happiness.

Anonymous said...

1. My Dad went back to school when I was in grade school to get a degree in restaurant management - part of the course was "cooking like a chef." He turned out to be a great cook!
2. Too many to list!
3. Toffee bits in any cookie!
4. www.recipezaar.com, hands down!
5. Making stove top popcorn when I was like 8, and burning the whole pot! And putting it on the back porch in hopes no one would know! Um, kinda hard to mask the smell of burnt popcorn!

Anonymous said...

1. Who taught you your baking/cooking skills? So far, it's slowly.. My dad throws in a lesson here and there. But I usually am the one to sit and wait for the dinner to be served. LOL

2. What is your favorite cookbook? Ah, I need cookbooks! I use the internet now and then. But I wouldn't mind a cookbook at hand.

3. What is your favorite ingredient to use when cooking/baking? Tofu!

4. What is your favorite online recipe site? Allrecipes, foodnetwork.. all those.

5. What is you earliest memory of cooking/baking? Baking banana bread with grandma!

Stephanie said...

1. My mom taught me the basics, and I learn more all the time.

2. My favorite cookbook is the Betty Crocker Cookbook, the big one.

3. Chocolate chips!

4. My go-to reference is allrecipes.com

5. My most memorable early experience was watching a cooking show where they made some fancy something-or-other, and my sister and I wanted to make it. So we tried and it was terrible!

HangryPants said...

1. Grandma, grandpa, mom, sisters and brother.
2. Right now, Apples for Jam
3. Garlic.
4. Cooking Light
5. Making cookies at Christmas w/ my mom.

Natalie Rae said...

1. Who taught you your baking/cooking skills?
Self taught? and mom?
2. What is your favorite cookbook?
A vintage Betty Crocker from the 1050's, my first cookbook ever with bears on the front, & the internet
3. What is your favorite ingredient to use when cooking/baking? Garlic, pumpkin, & sea salt
4. What is your favorite online recipe site? allrecipes.com and cookinglight.com
5. What is you earliest memory of cooking/baking? cutting out cookies? / helping my mom

Reeni said...

1. My Mom and my high school cooking teacher Mrs. Pederson.
2. The Cake Bible
3. Cinnamon... and garlic!
4. Epicurious
5. Easy Bake Oven for sure

miss v said...

1. i learned italian cooking 101 from my mother and grandmother. the more adventurous stuff was inspired by my aunt.
2. i don't really have one... i don't think i've actually tried to ever make a full recipe.
3. garlic... and right now, i'm in a serious hot sauce kick. i add it to everything!
4. all the blogs i read - they are so great and inventive.
5. i remember helping my grandmother make pizza once. and it was the best damn pizza i've ever had.

Anonymous said...

1. Myself :)
2. The internet, but I also love Veganomicon and The Mayo Clinic Cookbook.
3. Almond extract for baking
4. recipezaar.com
5. Licking the brownie mixing bowl and spoon of my babysitter when I was like 5.

Anonymous said...

Great idea for a post!

1. I guess my mom...but I'm also kinda self-taught by reading books, magazines, and watching food shows on tv.
2. I prefer to cook from magazines b/c it keeps things seasonal and fresh. I like Everyday Food, Cooking Light, and Gourmet.
3. Cinnamon
4. www.everydayfoodmag.com
5. Helping my mom bake cake and cookies.

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

1. My grandma, my mother & myself.
2. I can't choose...
3. Spices.
4. Epicurious, Tastespotting, Foodgawker and blogs.
5. Eating cookie dough and licking the spatulas when I was 3-4 years old.

Cheers,

Rosa

Lori said...

Fun post idea!

1. Part my mom, part self taught.
2. Joy of Cooking
3. Curry
4. Allrecipes.com
5. When my mom would make pies she would cut off the excess crust dough around the edges. We got to roll that out, sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar, roll it up and slice it off to bake these little crunchy cinnamon cookies.