Are You a Baker, a Cook or Both?

Do you believe that there are people who bake and people who cook but very few who do both?

I love to bake. Brownies, cakes, any kind of dessert. Give me a recipe and I’ll follow it meticulously (and make something that comes pretty close to the desired result). I just follow the recipe.

But cooking? As in, look in the pantry and the fridge and make something for dinner, drawing only from your experience and creativity? I’m in awe of people who can do that. It’s so foreign to me, that it’s like another world. I’m amazed by people who can throw together food and spices and make something delicious, just because they know what should go with what. I wish I could do that.

In fact, when I stopped working to stay home with my kids full time, I looked at the dinner hour like it was that giant Basilisk in Harry Potter.

Dinner was something I had to tackle, to take on, to conquer. Years later, I would still shudder when the kids grew old enough to ask, “Mom, what’s for dinner?” Ugh.

I’ve taken several different approaches to the dinnertime challenge over the years. I went through a phase where I was inspired by some of my friends (who are all great cooks) and actually spent hours poring over cookbooks and surfing the web, selecting recipes and making grocery lists, spent another hour or two going around to various stores to get all the ingredients, then made a schedule for all of it (what to cook when, with what, and which item to prepare first). Monday through Friday, I’d spend a good chunk of time making different meals and, night after night, I’d face lukewarm (if that) reactions from my kids.

It didn’t take long for me to figure out that I was trying way too hard. I felt discouraged and rejected. I’d expended all that effort and nobody even enjoyed the food. I soon stopped the planned menus, but I pulled back a little too far and started to rely on take-out food, mac & cheese, and pizza.

Then a friend told me about these assemble-your-own-dinners places that are popping up all over the country. Have you been to one of these? The idea is that you choose 6 or 8 or a dozen entrees, select the date and time you want to come in to their store, pay for it all in advance, then go in on your chosen day, assemble the ingredients, take it all home in a cooler, store the entrees in your freezer and cook each of them whenever you choose.

I went to a few of these pseudo kitchens several times, but my family quickly tired of the food and insisted they would rather “just have something simple.”

Okay…simple is good. I turned to the internet to look for “simple” recipes, then decided I would stick to basic, basic food (like grilling up some chicken, making mashed potatoes and sauteeing some green beans). But…each week I would make one special dinner. One week my son would choose, the next would be my daughter’s turn.

I had the kids write lists of the kinds of things they really liked to eat. My son wrote that he would be happy if we could alternate days of burgers and pizza. Uh huh. Well, that would not work for the rest of us — most of whom don’t like eating meat and some of whom don’t like pizza. I explained how the list was not like an order form. I wasn’t going to make whatever they wrote on the lists. Rather, I would occasionally make their favorites. The rest of the time would be standard fare, like tacos, chicken, pasta, and quesadillas with soup.

When the time came to make the burgers, I hesitated. I don’t like eating burgers at all (haven’t had one in probably about 15 years) and, for some reason, I don’t even like to make them. When I have tried to make them, they’re just not that good. I’m so lousy at just throwing things together (which is why I relied on the recipes from cookbooks & websites and, when that failed, had to turn to take out and those pseudo kitchens). I was operating at the extremes. I went from knocking myself out with dinnertimes that were overly elaborate (or way too labor intensive) to ordering pizza.

So I turned to the web. It’s known as a place that’s great for recipes of all types, right? I wondered whether I could find simple, everyday recipes and somehow make dinner more enjoyable for all of us. I found many blogs that talked about food, some that simplified cooking (a little too much, perhaps), many that captured images of food in gorgeous pictures, and many that offered fantastic, healthy recipes.

And I found a site called Hot Moms Cook — everyday moms (who happen to be gorgeous!) making everyday food and sharing some of their kid friendly recipes.

I spotted their recipe for Burger Bites. My kids have always like food that looks good and are especially fond of diminutive food, so these little burgers seemed promising.

Generally speaking, I’ve had pretty good success when I do interesting things with the presentation of the kids’ food — I’m talking about simple changes like blue food coloring in water — not elaborate things like making smiley faces into grilled breakfast meat like this one over at Pete’s place (how’d he do that?!) or making amazing pictures out of the foam in hot chocolate (as the baristas at coffee bars from Seattle, WA to Marblehead, MA are trained to do).

As an aside, for you coffee lovers out there, if you want to see a master in action, check this out:

http://www.5min.com/Embeded/4539253/

Oh, how I wish I could do that…

But, back to the burgers. These little burgers looked cute and seemed fun to make.

The Hot Moms Cook recipe modifies a basic burger recipe. The teeny tiny buns are made from basic Pillsbury breadstick dough that you cut into little rectangles and, while they are baking, prep the meat to put it in the oven. Burgers? In an oven? Yes, but trust me, it works. You add a few things to the meat, then spread it out in a 9×13 pan. Bake it, add cheese at the end if the kids like it, then slice it up (quickly) and add the beefy rectangles to the bread rectangles and voila! a platter of burger bites. It might seem like more work than your average burger, but maybe you can get the kids to help. It’s worth it.

I’m telling you, the kids devoured these little gems and my son said, “Mom! This is the best thing you’ve ever made for us!” Even I ate them and they were delicious! Add some veggies with crinkly fries on the side or, for little kids, some of those smiley potatoes and you’re good to go.

If you haven’t visited Hot Moms Cook, go on over there for some new kid-friendly recipes. I’m feeling so grateful to have found them.

My time on the web helped me to see what “simple” means. Now I’m thinking that I’ll still use things like Epicurious, but only once in a while. Everyday dinners can be burger bites or chicken & mashed potatoes or spaghetti. I may never be a creative cook, but at least I can let go of the pressure and stress to make all those lists and spend all that time creating weekly balanced menus.

Great. Gives me more time to practice my latte art.

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Images from Google Images and Hot Moms Cook. Video from here.

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