The other day, while waiting to sign up for a service, one of the salespeople, trying to make conversation, said, “So, what did you have for dinner.”
“Grilled portobella mushroom caps with melted cheese.”
He and the other sales rep ohhhed and ahhhed, then the first one said, “That sounds great. I wish I could cook. It sounds expensive.”
I told him how cheap and easy it was to make. And I told him how to make it.
The portobella caps are less than a dollar apiece. You need one per serving, a grill surface or skillet, some olive oil or butter, and slices of provolone and pepper jack cheese. Heat the skillet to medium high, pour in a little oil to lightly coat the surface, toss in the mushrooms. Let them cook for several minutes, probably about five, then turn them over and cook the other side. Let them cook through. Then flip them so the rounded top is facing up and place one slice of Pepper Jack cheese on top and cover it with a slice of provolone. Continue cooking until the cheese has melted. If you like, serve with a spicy sauce, like a chipotle ranch dressing.
They both looked at me like I’d just described how to make a nuclear reactor out of smoke detector parts (which, of course, I could tell you how to do as well). He shook his head. “I wish I could cook,” he said again.
Just stop it. There’s nothing difficult about cooking. The recipe I described above takes zero skills. You’re basically heating things up. There’s no cutting, slicing, measuring, or mixing. It’s both cheap and delicious. And it probably took 10 minutes, less time than it would take to prepare a frozen meal. And it was cheaper and tastier than any frozen dinner, too.
And that’s the big secret: the things that you’re eating that come out of a box or package aren’t really that tasty. You can have better tasting and more nutritious meals if you just learn some very basic things. I won’t even call them skills. As my grandpa use to say, “You couldn’t get a meal like that in a restaurant.”
You can cook. You just choose not to.
Stop complaining and being afraid. Cook and eat something tasty today!
The Stop Saying, “I can’t cook.” by Randy Murray, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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I can’t bake.
Baking and cooking are two different things. I can bake, but I don’t enjoy it. My wife, who is much more detail oriented, is a much better baker, but not as good of a cook.