The last month or so I've been working mostly out of town. So dinner has been microwave soup in the hotel.

I have made a cookie list (cookies I intend to make for Christmas). So I will hopefully start this weekend. It's not a bad place to start if you're trying to get your cooking mojo back. I always start with simply drop cookies (peanut butter or chocolate chip) and work up from there. Drop cookies are about as close to instant gratification as you can get; mix up a handful of ingredients, plop them on a tray; bake for 10 minutes and in 15 minutes your eating a cookie!

I joined after I finished my kitchen remodel. Met some nice people. Got some great tips and recipes. There was a lot of acrimony flying around, however, so I left for awhile. Came back after it settled down. I like the nice people. I like talking through cooking, problem solving, learning things. None of my IRL friends are interested in cooking. Before I do a web search, when I have a question, I come here. CF members usually have better answers. The actual cooking doesn't really have anything to do with being a member of the forum, though, since I am, the tips and tricks, recipes, advice and encouragement all help my cooking. I don't have any real goals, right now, other than to feed people. Back burner goals are a year old, before stuff happened. Beignets and puff pastry. It's just a matter of doing them, however. I know the how.

Something new, based on a lot I've read in CF, on Prime Day, I let myself be lured by an extra $25 off into buying an air fry oven. I've cleaned everything but haven't used it yet. My Advantium was on the fritz before the pandemic, and I have all the parts, now, but don't want a couple of big guys in my kitchen uninstalling it. It's probably just the fuse, but it has to be uninstalled to change that, and while it's out, I want a new magnatron at the least. So the air fry oven is supposed to do a lot of things I used the Advantium for. It can have the job for a year. :) It came with good exemplar recipes. It's supposed to dehydrate as well, and says to the point of "hard". I'll believe it when I see it, but it has to be better than what my oven (which retains too much moisture) does. Considering air fry is high speed convection oven, I have some hopes. If I can get a handle on some work stuff, I'll try some beet chips, soon.

None of my IRL friends are interested in cooking...

excuse me, we are not real???!!!!

[pokes the bear]

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

C'mon now.....you know we are all among those axe murders that people met on line!
The first time I made a hotel reservation and traveled a few hundred miles to meet with some "friends i met on the internet" you should have heard my kids!!

My cooking mojo these days is very odd. For 7 months I spent every day and most of my cooking energy baking 5 loaves of bread and giving it away. I didn't cook much, dinner mostly was bread and maybe cheese....sometimes a burger or some chicken on the grill or a quick salad and bread.
Then the derecho came, wiped out all my "little quick meals" in the freezer and occupied a lot of time for a month.....and still I was baking bread daily.
Well a month ago I hit the wall on the daily baking and stopped and have been making all the loong cooked things I missed. Made a pork shoulder and pulled and packaged the meat for different things, made spaghetti sauce and meatballs, made tomato soup, bean soup, cream of mushroom soup, sweet and sour red cabbage and tomorrow I will make another cabbage soup and freeze lots. I am hungry for a pot roast and the leftovers it brings, for a roast chicken and stuffing.
But I suppose this frenzy will pass and I will soon be baking bread again, because in these times it's my only chance to interact in person with others....even if it's just a How-de do and a toss of a loaf.

I admit it. I don't wear a mask when I'm with y'all superreal folks.

but, but ... it's Halloween!

I wander here off and on to ask cooking questions. I used to visit the garden forums a whole lot years and years ago. I spent time in the kitchen and small house forums when I moved 8-9 years ago. I found the kitchen forum terrifying and somehow landed in the cooking forum. Whew!

I feel like I am a new acquaintance to a bunch of old friends sometimes. But I love the mood here and learning about how people cook. My life is decidedly less formal than most. I tend to interested in learning about making a single dish rather than a dinner for big group. Some people are very opinionated but I ignore what doesn’t make sense to me and I generally respect opinions of skilled people.

Boo I may start making some cookies once the end of the garden tasks get wrapped up. I am right in the middle of a huge bunch of yard tasks right now! I have quite a few CF cookie recipes stored up, plus some others I gathered. I never make them though, I can't eat a lot of cookies and don't have enough folks to share them with. One of my Mom's good friends used to be constantly giving away cookies because she had to watch her weight and couldn't eat them. Even she stopped baking, I think she saturated the cookie market among her friends! So my "to try" cookie list just gets longer and longer. Even getting married didn't help, DH watches his weight. I actually like that about him, because he doesn't want to have a lot of junk food around which would tempt me.

Pllog my husband bought an air fryer for his son for Christmas. Apparently he and his family love it. They had a devastating stove/grease fire at their house two years ago, and now that they are finally back in the newly rebuilt home, they don't ever want to do any stove frying again. We don't fry all that much, and when we do we tend to do it out on the porch on top of the gas grill. The ventilation in my kitchen isn't that great . . . .

Linda your bread baking project was amazing! I hope it helped your morale during the quarantine time. I thought doing a lot of stuff at home would be nice, but it sort of drove me crazy because I am a teacher. So all of a sudden I have no students. That is a big motivator for me. Trying to figure out how to teach from home . . . and I now have a small side gig, plus am looking for a job. IF I can make it through the winter without any big disruptions (one can hope) I can probably find work at least part-time by spring. Very hard to stay motivated, I'm an extrovert so get my energy by interacting with other people. So yeah, that's a big part of the appeal here!! And why I so much enjoy getting together with CF folks IRL. And probably why a few snarks don't bother me, because I have so many other things going on, at least usually. I think we're all feeling more sensitive and vulnerable these days due to not having as many of the usual distractions.

LOL about the group of "old friends" Agmss. I consider you an old timer. I hope people experience the joy of sticking around because even though we have a lot of in jokes and stuff, I don't think we are unwelcoming. But then again, I'm extroverted and work with people for a living, so not easily intimidated. I do remember being nervous doing my first post . . . dipping a toe into the water so to speak. Kind of helped that I was also posting on Harvest, where I felt more comfortable with my expertise, and ran into Annie, who by fortune happened to be from my neck of the woods, just up the road. So that made me feel more at home at first . . .

If you're a lurker, don't be shy. Ask your questions. Most follks very happy to help. Of course sorting out all the conflicting opinions is difficult sometimes. That was my experience with my first post about doing a Thanksgiving turkey! So many options and opinions! That's why I so vividly remember Weed/Wendy's advice to just chill and pick whatever method seemed easiest to me, they all work pretty good, it's just a matter of personal preference. That dry turkey scared me off, but it was because we were doing a bunch of other stuff before dinner and the hostess just left the turkey warming in the oven and it dried out . . . I do a roast bird all the time now, we really like that kind of meal. Of all the meat meals I make, that's my favorite because it reminds me of my Bubbe.

Joined for the cooking, stayed for the people!

My own cooking has really waned this year, due to being very busy with the new business and no opportunity to entertain during Covid. But it comes and goes, and I’m hopeful of getting the cooking mojo back next year. For now, I like reading about everyone else’s cooking.

Pink, I also got an Instant Pot for Christmas. I do really like it, but need to figure out how to better utilize it. I've primarily used it for eggs , steel cut oats and pork tenderloins. They all come out great. I tried chili in it, but I think the flavors just need more time to meld and become friends with one another than the Instant Pot gives. However, it is a great way to cook savory things on a work night or when time is short.

One of my previous goals was to get an instant pot or whatever you call those multi cookers that you can make rice in, use as a pressure cooker or slow cooker. Have not gotten around to that yet . . . maybe for Christmas! I'll be sure to check in here for recommendations. I actually have a pressure cooker and slow cooker, so maybe I just need a rice cooker . . . . or not. We are on the austerity plan with money right now, I'm on sabbatical so little money coming in. There are other options for making good rice . . .In whole house, my goal is paring down significantly, not gearing up. But every time I am about to get rid of something, I end up using it again. My bundt pan comes to mind . . .

I, too, first came here after a kitchen remodel. What was the term that they used to use on the Kitchen Forum? Was it “Totally Kitchen Obsessed”? That was me, then the project was finished and it was time to use it. I have appreciated that everyone here has been so kind and so willing to share their knowledge and experience. (There is one exception, but I guess every board needs a jerk to act as a foil for the nice folks)

For the first 3 months of “staying-in,” I made something different for dinner every night. Then the wheels fell off. I lost my enthusiasm for cooking. It hasn’t returned yet, but I’m confident it will. Regretfully, along with the enthusiasm returning, the 5 lbs I struggled to get rid of will probably also return. 😆

I almost posted an artful photo of the Colonel’s finest to the What’s For Dinner thread tonight. The shame.