Cup of Java

The TV and Cooking
Well, I made it to the weekend and through that filing job. I guess that's my accomplishment for the week. Sort of sad, but ah well. I'm sitting here fooling around online and I should really be cleaning up the kitchen, getting my butt to the gym to work out, working on two paintings and on an ad campaign. Instead I've been surfing through other weblogs/journals/blogs and tinkering with my own. The web is such a perfect way to waste time though. I mean, there's plenty to see and do and especially with weblogs, there's plenty of links that can keep you roaming. At least that's what happens to me. I look at one and end up clicking on all the links (or some of them). I've got PBS on and they are showing their cooking programs. But, it's pledge time for them so, you get nicely interrupted with them begging for cash. I really hate it but I suppose they don't have much of a choice. And therefore neither do I.
They are showing an interesting thing on Julia Child. They have a bunch of well known chefs and cooks talking about her and showing clips from all her shows. I really watch too many cooking shows, but I love to cook and I find it's good inspiration for me. Sometimes I think I would enjoy being a professinal chef. But, then I think about the hours required, especially in the early stages of that sort of career, and I think maybe I'm better off just cooking for friends and family. True, the ad biz does have some crazy hours, but it's not the same thing.
One of the things I want to work on is getting a nice selection of my own personal recipes together. To create things that may become family recipes in the future or something like that. I have a few from my family that have been passed down, but not as many as I'd like. My mum created a nice cookbook for me with most of the recipes in it. It's one of those things I think about sometimes. My grandmother made some great things and she never had a written recipe for anything she cooked. If it's around now it's because my mum got it written down before she died. But there are some things I wish I had a recipe for, like her mushroom rice. I loved that rice so much. I've tried to duplicate it with disasterous results. Although when attempting such a feat, that does usually seem to be the case. But I do have her cupcake recipe, which my dad asked me to give to him. I didn't want to but, as she was his mother I suppose I should. Not that he'd make it. I'd rather make him the cupcakes myself. The chances of that happening though are few, at least in the near future. He won't come out to see me, and I'm not all the keen on the idea of flying. In someways I am still scared to fly, although I did around the holidays last year and it was fine. But, I am already so stressed out lately that I don't know if it's a good idea. The other thing is that I get invited out there to visit, and then he spends next to no time with me. I get tired of that.
Watching this program i realize there are a lot of foods I only really know one or two ways to prepare. I'd like to expand that knowledge. Another thing I want to work on in terms of cooking skills is the ability to make dishes from various cuisines around the world. I think I've got italian and mexican down okay and would like to move on to moroccan, thai, indian and spanish. There are loads more that I would like to learn as well. I need to expand my cookbook collection by about 1000 fold. Well, I'd like to at least.