To backtrack a little, the road to being a good cook didn't start very well (much like my bone rattling start to
running). The first time I tried making hummus, I misread the recipe. Instead of five cloves of garlic, I used
five heads of garlic. It was a disaster of epic and sinus-burning proportions. My initial reaction was the
homicidal desire to throttle the recipe writer's neck, but clearly I was the idiot who needed autoasphyxiation. I discarded the Bizarro-version of hummus and tried again, finally pleased with the result.
The great thing about the craft of cooking is that it's not that expensive to try and try again. I used to think
that I just didn't have the skill to make my own food. It turned out that I just didn't know the right
techniques. I watched PBS cooking shows. I bought recipe books (I recommend “How To Cook Everything”
by Mark Bittman, “Fast Food My Way” by Jacques Pepin and “Everyday Food” magazines by the Martha
Stewart mega empire). And now I not only love cooking, it is one of the ways I find my center - along with
doing my regular 40 laps at the fitness center. Of course, I'm no Pepin when it comes to cooking, but then
again I'm no James A. Michener when it comes to writing. But on both occupations, I think I'm serviceable.
Enough to please myself anyway - and isn't that having self-esteem all about?
So now we come to the point of this article (sorry for the overextended preamble): four cooking tools I like
using - the Fantastic 4. Let's get to it.
Photo by Vegan Feast Catering
Photo by Susan Marque
61
THE CONE - ISSUE #9 - SPRING 2016
Photo by Susan Marque