What recipe?

 

I have had a lifelong passion for cooking.  Before computers, I collected dozens of cookbooks and subscribed to several cooking magazines.  After the Internet came along, I would browse it for recipes.  I was eager to try new techniques and was undaunted by a long list of ingredients.

As my eyesight began to fail, I used stronger and stronger magnifying glasses to read recipes.  Then I began seeking easier recipes. The next step was trying to limit the number of ingredients so I could memorize recipes that my husband would read to me.   Finally I am at the stage where I use no recipes at all and improvise 99% of the time.

Now I rely on my many years of experience.  Actually it is going quite well and have come up with some interesting results by just throwing things together that sound good to me.  Mostly I rely on recipes that do not depend on specific amounts of ingredients to be successful and have a large margin for error.  For example, this week I made individual tarts with caramelized onions and goat cheese with egg and cream.

Two things that work in my favor: one is my husband loves to eat and eats everything--even  my mistakes.  And never criticizes what hits the table.  Secondly, there are lots of basic recipes that are very flexible. 

The two biggest cooking challenges are deboning meat or fish and detecting  mold on things, like cheese. This spring I've had my husband take over these chores.

How I come to terms with my stove is a whole other blog post.