Savory Sundays: the confessions

My blog buddy Gracey posted a challenge on her blog, and I'm all about challenges.

Gracey fessed up about her own cooking secrets, the stuff that we would be embarrassed to admit to a celebrity chef.

Well, I have a few and I figured it would be good to confess right here and right now, on a day I've set aside on my blog for cooking. So here goes:

1. My knives are terrible. I use small knives to cut most everything, from chicken and meats to fruits and vegetables. Worse, the knives are dull. I have a little sharpener but it doesn't really work.

2. I don't thaw my chicken and/or beef all the time. In fact, I rarely do. Most of the time, I soak the chicken in some hot water before cooking it. I know, it's supposed to be cold water but I don't have a lot of time when I do it. It's not that I always forget, but I don't always have my dinners planned out first thing in the morning. And when I do, I forget... most of the time anyway.

3. A lot of time when I get to cooking/baking, I have to wash something. It might be measuring cups or some utensil or it may be a muffin pan or a skillet. I hate washing dishes. No wait, let me rephrase that, ahem: I really HATE washing dishes. It's a pain in the ass.

4. I always take a big whiff of spices when I use them. I measure out what I need and when I go to put the lid on it or whatever, I always sniff it. Sometimes when I smell the chili powder, I sneeze! I don't know why I do it. I just love the smells I suppose.

5. I have my laptop in the kitchen with me at all times. My laptop sadly is dying a slow and painful death, and perhaps I accelerated it, but it's become a must. I have recipes on there a lot of the time and Ilisten to music while cooking as well. I like me some Killers or Flogging Molly mostly, sometimes Metallica.

6. One of my worst fears is serving undercooked chicken. So I tend to slice into the chicken to see if it's cooked. My chicken usually has a lot of stab wounds when I serve it.

7. I have never tried to use yeast. I'm scared of it. I have a few packets that I think have expired. I'm probably just going to toss them.

8. To check for al dente when cooking pasta, I throw it against the wall to see if it sticks. Once, I threw some spaghetti somewhere and then somehow it got covered up by something, cookbooks I think, and the pasta was literally on the wall for months before I realized it was there. Shhh!

9. Okay, here's my last and most embarrassing... I don't know how to use a broiler. Okay, that was painful to type. I just don't. Have never attempted to use it. Always feel inadequate when I hear it mentioned. Oh well... maybe some day.

Well, that's all I can think of right now. Confessions of a beginning home cook. That's me. Now, don't go telling Ingrid any of my dirty little secrets.