Interesting thread but I must state that many of you are exhibiting some rather bizarre tendencies and habits.
As opposed to yours truly, who is normal.
I'll provide my list in a moment but let me set the stage:
I do all the cooking in our household. I threw Mrs. Cholula out of the kitchen a few weeks after we were married when I discovered she thought a recipe was a law. If the recipe "calls for it", it MUST be included. And in exact proportions. And if the recipe "doesn't call for it", it can NEVER be included. The final straw was when she had me look up a recipe to see if it "called for" an 1/8th tsp. or a 1/4 tsp. of some seasoning.
She got the boot that day although I'm still waiting for her to complain 30+ years later.
I'm a pretty good cook. If Wolfgang Puck is a 10 and
jfe's sister-in-law is a 0, I'd rate myself a 7-8.
Here's my list:
1. I don't own any measuring spoons or measuring cups. And I don't use recipe books. I eyeball everything as I go and most times we've been very happy with the results. But there has been the occasional meal where we both take our first bite, our eyes meet simultaneously and a scream of "CALL PIZZA HUT!!!!" fills the air.
2. I'll order fish and chicken in a restaurant on a regular basis but I won't cook them at home. No gross, smelly or yucky-looking food in my kitchen. If it disgusts me before it's cooked, I won't have an appetite after it's cooked. And that's how I feel about chicken and fish in it's raw state.
3. I'm a bit better with beef but I have a rule here too. If the piece of meat performs a vital function in the steer rather than just keeping it upright, it doesn't come into the kitchen. No beef livers, kidneys, hearts, brains, etc. need ever darken my doorstep.
4. Eggs must be THOROUGHLY cooked. I don't want anything squirting on my plate when I eat them. Certainly not runny yolks and DEFINITELY not runny whites.
5. I don't like any sweet foods, including desserts, and still have the first pound of sugar I bought 30 years ago, unopened. It's a brick now.
That's the main reason "Miracle" Whip is banned from my house. It's nothing but mayo with two tons of sugar thrown into the mix. Gross!!!
That's pretty much my list.
I look forward to hearing from the other normal people out here in OMNI-land.
