Learn How To Cook

I moved out of the house when I was 21 because I felt the need to be more independent and to see if I could really make it on my own.  One of the things I had to do was learn how to cook.  As a single person, I had many offers from friends to come over for dinner but, at some point, you’re faced with the problem of what are you going to eat?  Dining out was not a possibility.  I barely had enough money to pay the rent.  I explored the world of cooking for the first time and found that I greatly enjoyed the wonders of making something that was actually edible.  You have to remember that this was more than fifty years ago, so cooking was not the popular activity that it is today.  There were no instructional videos to watch, and the only television shows were Julia Child and The Galloping Gourmet which featured Graham Kerr.  My brother and I watched each of these once in a while but never tried to emulate what we saw.

All that changed when I was on my own.  It was interesting to actually have to decide for yourself what you were going to have.  I relied on frozen foods as most bachelors probably do. I also had a curiosity about whether I could make any of these things better than what I was experiencing.  Some of them were good but, for the most part, they were lacking in what you look for in a fine dining experience.  My mother was a very good cook and the dinners out of the box didn’t measure up.  I had to learn how to cook.

I bought a couple of cookbooks that covered not only the recipes but also the techniques.  I also expanded my experience with food when I started doing a little better in my employment and had a little money to spend.  I worked far too many hours to have a serious dating life but, on the occasions that I experienced a well prepared dinner at a good restaurant, I became even more curious about how to make some of the wonderful food I was experiencing.  Enter the love of my life, the saint who agreed to marry me, and we were both determined to enjoy dining experiences (and travel) as our shared hobby.  She’s a great cook and is willing to try anything in the kitchen.  We have taken cooking classes together and with other couples and have found it to be one of our great pleasures in life.  If we have something new and unusual, like grits on our first trip to New Orleans, we become determined to learn how to cook what we just enjoyed.

When you learn how to cook, you develop an appreciation for a wonderfully executed dish.

Today, there are many cooking and dining shows and a whole network devoted to food.  It’s still one of our favorite pastimes and, when you make it part of your travel itinerary, it’s even more enjoyable.  We’ve been fortunate to do well financially so the top restaurants are always on our radar.  A couple of times a year we splurge to go to one of “legendary” places that are true experiences.  We get even greater enjoyment, however, when we find a restaurant that’s just as good (in our opinion) but a lot more affordable.  Perhaps their level of service is not quite up to the Four-Star standard, but the food is absolutely incredible.  There is something about taking your first bite of a dish and being stopped in your tracks and speechless because you didn’t think anything could taste that good.  Good bread, a rich sauce and that’s all I need to make an absolute pig of myself because I just can’t stop enjoying what I’m tasting.  And my first thought is that I have to learn how to cook this.

We’re fortunate to be able to travel each winter and escape the cold of upstate New York.  We vary our travel routes and even our destinations each winter, but we always know where we’re going to eat.  We have favorites that we’ve discovered along the way but we’re always open to new places and research is always done for each stop along the way.  Local reviews count a lot but so does the word of our fellow travelers over the years.  We even consult Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives to see if there are places that Guy Fieri has visited.  Food and dining out can be a lot of fun and, if you learn how to cook in the process, you’ve opened up a whole new world.  You’ll never get tired of trying to duplicate a delectable entrée or a delicious appetizer.  We’ve been making sourdough breads and pizza ever since our first trip to San Francisco so you never know how your world will change when you stay open to the possibilities.  This world is an amazing place, and the food people are eating is as diverse as the cooks who make it.  You can be one of those cooks!  Or you might settle just to be one of the lucky diners.  Either way it’s time to get out of your comfort zone and Enjoy Retired Life!

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