ciddyguy's Profile

Liver is just about the ONLY thing I totally distaste, It's both the texture, and taste that make me gag, and it's usually plain ol' liver and onions that ruin it for me even though I grew up on the stuff (yuck).

Tomatoes, avocados, both foods I didn't like as a kid, but now love. I found I liked tomatoes by themselves, or a whole piece on a hamburger back in 1985 when on holiday with my parents and we were at a truck stop somewhere on the Gulf Coast on our way to Jacksonville Fla from New Orleans when I ordered a hamburger and it had a slice of tomato, and never took it out.

After a bite, or two, with a mouth full, I realized that they were quite tasty and have been eating them ever since.

Avocados came about last year sometime when I didn't pick out the pieces in a salad and decided they were good as is, though I've always liked Guacamole. It's because it has tomatoes, lemon juice, and salt and the whole thing is pureed.

I still am not a big fan of Brussel Sprouts though, and it's because they were often boiled ans served with vinegar. Ocra is another veggie I'm not a huge fan of, though I love 'em breaded, and fried, or stewed in tomatoes.

I also disliked beer until 1994 when I had some at a friend's bachelor party, and it was NOT Budweiser et-al, but halfway decent stuff, Henry Reinhardt for starters and now love the GOOD stuff, even Guinness Stout, though I have to be in the mood for it, the taste of it can be overpowering at times.

Thankfully, I was not much of a picky eater as a kid so that was one thing my Mom didn't have to deal with too much.

Having grown up in suburbia in the 1970's, and early 80's, I didn't have a space like this, though I had my own room to listen to music in, watch TV at times, read, do whatever creative endeavor I felt like doing - and grew up in a 2200SqFt home with 3 older siblings and both parents so space was tight, but we did it.

And growing up, we had an open door policy, with hitches, if we left to go anywhere, we had to let our parent's know, and awoke Mom when we got home from wherever, and we had to get approval too for certain things too.

Essentially there were rules, and expectations we had to follow, but we always had friends over too. They loved being at our house. It wasn't pretentious or anything like that, but it was homey, inviting and fun to be in, and that was what was important.

I went places like school plays, concerts, football/basketball games, played in pep band, did church activities as well. Again, we had to leave a note, or let Mom know when we got home, and most times the curfiew was no later than midnight.

Still I grew up without missing much so that is what I think kids need more than anything else right now.

I learned how to fry chicken the old fashioned way by my Mom, though she used a regular electric skillet for that purpose, but a good ol' cast iron pan works just as well.

One trick she taught me is crowd the pan with chicken pieces, it'll help keep it from burning, and yet let it cook until done.

Never had bad fried chicken because it wasn't done enough. After a while, you just learn when it's done, and I go by how golden brown the skin is, as in the photo above, and usually it's cooked through.

This is great, a kitchen that is more about function than anything else, and looks good doing so.

Though if it were me, a bit more color, and crocks of utensils by the stove would make it perfect in my book, along with fun artwork - and my Mom's blue apothecary canister set she bought back in the late 1960's.

What caught my eye, was him, bowtie and all at the top of the post, a handsome gent who happens to cook/bake as well.

I was fortunate I had a mother who taught me the basics, and spent many a Sunday afternoon watching TV chefs, such as Julia Child do their thing back in largely the 1980's and early 90's, so gleaned much of what I know now from them.

That said, lots of good suggestions here. Alton Brown's Good Eats, also don't forget Julia Child's early show, the French Chef as she demystifies many cooking techniques (and French cooking for that matter) down to it's basic elements, and shows you many basics such as how to cut an onion, a potato, and also mushrooms, and how to wash a knife and what to recommend (yes, back in the 60's and early 70's, she was dispensing advice like this) and many times she'll demonstrate a recipe, precisely because it has several techniques that once you learn them, you can do a whole bunch of other recipes as these techniques often are often widely used in a variety of dishes/situations.

Take for instance, Mouse Au Chacolat, in it she shows you how to whip the egg yolks to a creamy, light yellow consistency so they don't actually cook, how to melt chocolate morsels to use in said recipe, and how to whip egg white, and how to separate the eggs before beginning - and later how to fold the whipped whites into the rest of the batter so as to not deflate them, as once you master these, then you are ready to try other recipes, and she's remarkable for that kind of thing.

But also, just observe HOW others cook, be it on TV or in real life and again, begin at the basic level of obtaining a GOOD chef's knife, and again, not need be terribly expensive, but a GOOD solid knife that can take, and hold an edge and be comfy to use in your hand, get a decent cutting board, plastic or wood, and avoid any of the glass ones, and never, ever cut ON the counter itself as it'll either damage the blade, or the counter (or both) and then learn basic knife techniques.

AT has plenty of videos here on some of the basic techniques from Emma and others so hunt around and get some good, but basic cookbooks, and lastly, don't let the various techniques intimidate you as once you see how each one does, cooking suddenly doesn't look so complicated.

Good luck.

And I should say that if you are busy, or having guests over, you may not WANT to be washing dishes right away (or like Faith), have an open kitchen/dinning area and thus have to eat while the dirty dishes are in PLAIN VIEW), especially true if one (or both) dishwashers are full/running already.

While I'll agree that fresh veggies are better than frozen, frozen veggies do have their place, and I'll agree to GET your kids to eat their veggies, serve them the real mcCoy's, ones you buy fresh and prepare.

That said, I agree as part of a dish, sure, why not. I make a casserole that is canned artichoke hearts, frozen spinach, cream cheese, and parm cheese on top being the main ingredients, very good, and all I have to do is drain the hearts, cut into smaller sizes if need be, and thaw the spinach and then squeeze out as much of the water so they can be spread about as a layer in the dish and it's quite tasty if you ask me.

I like frozen lima beans as they are easy to get, and I just heat them in some water in a pot until fully heated through and add to cooked rice for a simple, southern dish/meal, along with salt/pepper, and perhaps some shredded parm cheese.

Otherwise I don't do frozen too much, a few canned ones I'll do, like green beans, and I just drain and rinse those before heating in the microwave.

I live in Seattle and can't utilize the markets year 'round unless I high tail it to Pike Place Market, but even there, I doubt much in the way of local fruit/veggies are sold outside the relatively short growing season here.

That said, I do utilize other places, besides the supermarket when I can. Places like Big John's PFI (Pacific Food Importers) for bulk grains, cheeses, pasta, and dried spices/herbs as they have great prices on stuff, and quite a large selection of stuff while at it.

Very cool! Just more fodder for my creative leanings! ;-)

CARZ,

If you don't like the tour, then put YOUR house on here and see if you can handle someone saying they don't like it.

That being said, can't really cover the AC if it's in use as it's also the way the cool air gets circulated into the room.

I'll agree I'd have gone at some things differently, but I like much of what has been done here, though for me it'd be colors other than varying shades of gray, just for starters.