Gravy's Cooking Thread

Eyashusa_sl said:

Finally a woman to teach us all how to cook am I right???

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Ha - I can cook and I am not bad at it, but G was the man - he cooked from instinct. He was not allowed in the kitchen as a child; he learned on his own and just knew what flavors and textures would meld well. The first time he made a chicken pot pie, he had never before made a pie crust. That fucker made a better crust than I ever had and I had done it for years.

I will probably lose a few pounds now that he is gone. He made supper for me every week night except for the past few months. I usually just cooked on the weekends.
I never was great at cooking for 2, I grew up in a house of 6 and learned to cook for 6, with an extra potato in the pot for unexpected company...G and I always had left-overs.
My cooking is "country", a little bit of Bohemian and German tossed in to middle American.
G was adventuresome, liked a challenge and would try anything. It was awesome. I know he learned a lot from several of you - thanks for the sous vide info by the way.

Ao-_sl said:

Have any recipes? I have 3 kids that eat like 5 kids and frankly I'm tired of the Scandinavian shit my wife is making.

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Most of what I cook is just done because my mom or grandmas taught me how to make it. A few things I like to keep consistent so I do use a recipe (sort of...not all components and I am screwing with them all the time, based on what G liked). Among his favorites though were my chicken and dumplings and my potato soup (that I tweaked from an original recipe by Jeff Smith in Frugal Gourmet Cooks American). I have boxes of recipes from our moms and grandmas - several of them just have ingredients lists, no amounts, no instructions. I also LOVE cookbooks - mostly to read. G bought me cookbooks I have them stacked everywhere. I ramble on.


Incidentally, I spent hours reading this thread last night; you are some serious cooks. I loved reading G's words and could in my head, hear him say them. Thank you - did I say that yet? Thank you.

Hekotat_sl said:

This thread is filled with nothing but Sous Vide hipsters taunting me with their 5 star creations while I'm over here figuring out how to take care of cast iron cookware.

This is how they make me feel in comparison.

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I think I read several posts on how to do that, but the way I learned was from my grandpa and also my mom. My favorite pan we own (we - sorry - old habits...) is one from G's grandma. It is a "no name" but has incised markings that read: Made in USA and No. 10, 12 and 7/16 in

I use super hot water and nylon scraper; if extra icky will heat the water on stove just to boiling; dump most of it out and put a little baking soda in it and scrub with towel, then rinse well and lightly oil it, leaving the paper towel I used in it. (My mom always did that.).

I can recall being with my grandparents' on the farm and once a year or so if the pans needed it, they would take advantage of whatever fire they had burning (out of doors, it seems like they were always using their big ass outdoor kettles for something - rendering, boiling water to dunk chickens in to loosen feathers etc). My grandpa would put the pans in the hot coals to burn off whatever super crust was on the pan; then he would re-season. Ours is in pretty good shape so I haven't built an outdoor fire for this purpose.

Never put cold water in a hot pan; you'll warp it and then it is only good as a sandwich press.

lurkingdirk_sl said:

Yeah, if you like warped sandwiches.

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I do seem to like warped things.