Cooking!

I'm pretty well known round these parts for being abysmal at baking. 'Mini' is a byword for 'shitcakes' on hitched.

I'm not much of a cook either. My mum didn't cook so nobody ever taught me, and I've only made odd forays into figuring it out for myself. I make this enchilada casserole a lot:

https://ohsheglows.com/naughty-nice-vegan-enchilada-casserole/

I much prefer baking, I do that quite a lot. I think baking appeals to my sense of order cos everything has to be exactly right, you can't mess around with ingredients or proportions too much or it just won't work. Cooking has too much of a "let's just throw this in and see what happens" element, it panics me.

Give me a recipe, all the ingredients and the necessary equipment and I can cook almost anything. But, I cannot make it look pretty!!! As a result, my most embarrassing moments tend to involve the way it looks rather than the taste. I often think I should ask people to wear a blindfold to eat at my table!!

I used to be brill at cooking all sorts but since meeting OH it seems to have all gone pear shaped. He, however is an awesome cook which leads me to wonder if I'm subconsciously sabotaging my own efforts so I never have to cook again

HaHa those cakes are pretty special arent they? I dont have pictures of my attempt, but I attempted to make my sister a birthday cake (shes a awesome baker, we nickname her mary berry) as she always makes everybody else a birthday cake. The buttercreme had so much air in it it slopped out, the cake had a little dip in the middle and toast at the sides! Yummy! bless her though she had a little bit and pretended it was nice haha

Or my attempt at choc chip cookies - that came out with a texture of bread, HOW?

Think I am your opposite Inked doll, im not very good when something has ONE answer that cannot be changed - but if I can sort of get it right, it kind of works im happy, im sort of like that day to day too!

Ha ha I've had loads of cooking disasters I once forgot to count how many scotch bonnets to put in a dish & ended up putting the whole packet in which was about 9or 10.

I've also forgotten to taken the polystyrene tray off the bottom of a readymade pizza before putting in the oven. I'm utter cr*p in the kitchen.

I'm fasinated what a scotch bonnet is? Love local words for food. The amount of friends iv had to explain cob too etc :-)

I love cooking! The vast majority of our meals are cooked from scratch and almost always SW recipes (or at least variations on). I make a pretty damn good risotto thanks to being trained by a lovely Italian lady when I worked for Carluccio's. My potato salad and cauliflower cheese are very well known amongst my friends and OHs uni friends still swear that I make the best Oreo cake they have ever tasted.

Bloody hell that makes me sound a bit pompous actually! Not my intention at all, I just love food! If I had the money I would love to take some proper lessons. On the flip side I cannot make pastry at all. I don't know why but I even struggle with not destroying the ready made stuff!

Embarrassing cooking moments.. hmmm I remember my 2nd date with OH he was cooking me pasta, he pulled out a bag of bright green pasta shapes from a cupboard and I assumed they were spinach pasta, until I noticed that they were furry! I was still so nervous and shy around him I convinced myself I was going to have to eat it anyway as he hadn't noticed. I kept quiet up until the water was boiling and he went to pour in the pasta ? To this day I tease him about it

I once tried to cook a ready made pizza, not only did I burn it to a crisp but I left the plastic tray underneath and it melted all over my oven

a scotch bonnet is a REALLY hot chilli usually used in Caribbean cooking, one or two is usually more than enough heat, 9 would blow your socks off! I know what you mean with the cob thing, we call a cob a batch and I've had to explain that a few times

Oops just realised flora had answered the scotch bonnet query!

That would be a tam o'shanter

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tam_o%27_Shanter_(cap)

I love cooking and baking and have had many years of playing, experimenting, creating some great things and also some hum-dinging disasters lol. I love trying new things and cannot resist buying cookery books of any description. It's not helped in that we have the Book People come to work regularly and they have amazing cookery books at really good prices lol.

For anyone who struggles though I would recommend getting a really good recipe book especially if it's accompanied by a TV series wshere you can see what's done. Tossing anything in to see what comes out can be great fun, but you need to understand the basics first.

I would also say that every cooker and oven is different and that causes massive difference on how fast or slow something cooks, in baking especially ,the oven temperature has such a massive impact on how something turns out. I got a new cooker a couple of years ago and have had to relearn the oven all over again. Although it has two fan ovens, I still have to turn things around half way through and remember to drop the temperature by about 20 degrees to stop things charring on the outside. I know some people beat themselevs up when it's just a case of learning your tools.

My signature dish according to OH is my paella, my signature bake according to OH's daughter are my red velvet cupcakes. The boys would say my Yorkshire puds are the best But then I am a Yorkshire girl The thing I struggle to get right is home made pizza, I can never get the dough base quite right and I tend to over-work scones.

And like a previous poster - apologies if this sounds pompous, I've just had too many years practising And have made all the mistakes others have mentioned over the years including cooking a turkey with the giblets still in the little plastic bag inside the bird :/

I say I can't cook but I can follow a recipe. I'm another one who can't do the 'chuck it all in and see what happens' technique which I think is why I can bake. One thing I cannot cook though is beef in any form (except mince). I always always over do it but I think it's probably because you need a bit of judgement and can't always just follow the recipe.

TBH I rarely cook, my H enjoys it and finishes work earlier than me so it just makes sense that he does it.

I am getting better at cooking, seeing as I have a little one, so we all eat together when OH gets home from work (proper little '50s family lol). Well, we are on my days off lol. I made an awesome beef ragu the other night, but last night I just guessed how to make risotto. OH bless him guzzled it down and said it was lush, but I wasnt so convinced about my cooking!!!

Oh I like cooking especially indian or mexican. Can't bake though. Nothing rises and always burns! Can do a fruit cake though.

Always got beef wrong, now I put it in the slow cooker all day with just a glug of red wine. Some carrots and onion. Falls apart!

My kitchen is my haven, I absolutely LOVE being in the kitchen. Whether it's baking, cooking, trying new things - I absolutely love it.

I'll normally find a recipe, follow it once, and adapt it if it's not quite to my liking.

Here is my chorizo hash with poached egg and asparagus:

And my homemade crumpets:

No, I've only used ready made sauce so far. In fact the first couple times I used fajita sauce as the enchilada sauce my local Asda stock isn't vegan (it's either Discovery or Old El Paso, I forget which). I really should try making the sauce too though, it's more laziness than anything that stops me!

I love cooking as most people know! And I like baking too. I made 120 cupcakes for a wedding last year.

I am definitely a 'make it up as you go along' cook but I do like to reference recipes.

My oh loves it when I try to make something. Not in a nasty way but he brought me beginner cook books our first Xmas together and iv started looking at them two years almost later he had already been talking of me moving in but I took it as cute this Xmas he got me appliances! But u know what although you might frown at appliances one of them iv used almost every day since!

I think I might make a effort to try one new thing a month :-)

What I am learning is home cooking is so much cheaper - good thing.

The ramblings of somebody who until a year ago had her mum haha X

HOMEMADE CRUMPETS?!?!?! Bonjour in my mouth!!

I love cooking! And baking. I'm hopefully going to make my wedding cake.

I don't have a huge amount of time to cook during the week, so last Sunday I made big batches of curry, chilli, bolognase, tagine and pie fillings for the freezer. That'll keep us going for the next month or so!

Looking forward to my next baking mission. When we move into our new house I shall start practicing the wedding cake - need to make sure I've the oven sussed!

I love cooking and baking, but only when I have a recipe to follow. I don't have enough imagination to throw things together. OH on the other hand isn't great with recipes, he stops reading them partway through and just does his own thing, it drives me mad, but he always ends up producing something great. Making dinner (and eating it) is often one of my favourite parts of the day. If I'm feeling a bit low I will spend a few hours in the kitchen making soup, biscuits, jam or whatever, it never fails to cheer me up. I've become the go-to-girl in my family for cakes and puddings, I've even started taking requests! Someone had a craving for a pecan danish pudding a couple of weeks ago, so I found a recipe and made some in time for a family get-together.

I never cooked when I was growing up, I think it was my final year of uni that forced me to learn how to cook properly, and I found I really enjoyed it. My grandmothers used to bake with me when I was little, and I baked a bit as a teenager, but not much. Again, it was something I got into at uni.

Sadly not many of my favourite recipes are that healthy... Though that is about to change, I have two years to cook myself slightly slimmer in time for the wedding! Dinner tonight is pretty good actually, it was in Good Food mag last month, the recipe is here: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/cajun-grilled-halloumi-lime-black-eyed-bean-salad-guacamole - I use shop-bought guacamole rather than make my own (who has time for that during the week?!), and I don't add spring onions because they repeat on me. Very tasty!

I don't cook dinners really, OH is a really good cook so I leave him to it. I can do a dinner if needs be but just basics like pasta, fish, potatoes, veg, spag bol etc. I do all the baking, I am fairly good as long I can just follow a recipe.

I don't have many embarrassing stories as I do so little cooking! I can honestly say I don't know how to boil an egg. Never done it, I am allergic to them, so never needed to!

I second this! One new thing a month is a great idea, I am starting to get a bit samey samey in the kitchen.

Back when small person was smaller, we would spend a stupid amount of money on 'ready to cook' meals, a load of meat that I never used up etc. It would be like, £70 - £80 a week for the 2 and half of us. Now, I have started cooking more, I don't have to spend more than £50 a week!!! And in that I can still get plenty of meat and enough raspberries to keep me quiet :p

I guess meal plans have helped, we literally used to walk around the supermarket just chucking random stuff in, which meant that we would buy too much fresh stuff and it would all go off by the time we needed to use it!! I am slowly enjoying cooking more now I see the benefit

I can just about manage to cook if I have a recipe to follow, baking I love and I can improvise pretty well if needs be (although I have my set go-to recipes)

The only fail I can think of is the time I forgot to put sugar in some cupcakes as I was in a rush and baking from memory and just completely forgot to get it out the cupboard. They didn't taste too bad though, a bit like really light airy cakey scones!

I love baking, but I have to be in the humour for it, otherwise it goes wrong.

I've started cooking more now, using my slow cooker and recipes. Have successfully made Chicken Tikka from scratch and Pork with Apples and Cider.

My most spectacular disaster was putting a pan of milk on the hob, forgetting about it and ruining the pan, not to mention stinking the house out with burnt milk.