The Can Cook Book

I hate cooking.

Okay, I don’t hate it, but I really don’t enjoy it, which is so unfortunate because not only is it something I have to do multiple times a day, it’s something I have to do for four other people multiple times a day.   I can run but I can’t hide.

Somehow I’ve managed to get by over the years with some remotely healthy meals, thanks to Trader Joe’s and Fresh Direct with their abundance of staples like fresh pre-cut veggies, organic frozen rice medleys and Ginger Teriyaki Marinated Chicken Breasts.   Yes, I’ve worked hard to keep it simple, all the way down to the totally prepped Whole Foods Thanksgiving dinner, thank you very much (I justify this one, by the way, because we don’t have any family that live nearby).

I suppose there are just too many other things that I’d rather be doing than shopping, chopping, baking and cleaning up three times a day, especially when there are finicky taste buds and an underlying feeling that no one really appreciates my efforts anyway.  Okay, maybe my husband appreciates my efforts, but I think he also understands that cooking is not my forte and is probably just glad that I’m not ordering in every night.

The truth is, when I imagined having a family someday, I never thought about the enormous responsibility that would be cast upon me to not only feed, but actually nourish so many people.   But this reality has been starting to really weigh on me.  There’s the guilt that I’m not making this a priority for my family because I selfishly dread it so much and then the feelings of failure when I attempt to make something that no one likes.   As my kids have been getting older, I can see and feel how badly they need (and actually want) some culinary challenges on their plates and the bottom line is, in this particular family, it’s up to me to make that happen.

All of these feelings had been snowballing into an overwhelming burden that would become just a little bit lighter one day last fall when I was shopping at Target.

It wasn’t the title, The Can’t Cook Book, it was the photo that urged me to stop my cart in the book section of the megastore. It featured a woman with an apron standing before a stove that had flames coming out of the pans and the oven.   I could relate (burning soup is one of my specialties).  Upon closer inspection I realized the woman on the cover was none other than Jessica Seinfeld.  As I thought about it, the last time I’d seen her was at a preschool tour on the Upper East Side–we both have at least one child the same age.  Funny how something that small can make you feel like you have a connection with a total stranger.  And yet, I wasn’t familiar with her previous cookbooks.  However, this one grabbed me.  Browsing through it, I was taken by the photography — who doesn’t want to see beautiful images of food in a cookbook?  And it didn’t take long to hook me… frankly, she had me at Roasted Brussel Sprouts!

I continued flipping through the cleverly assembled spiral bound book and recipe after recipe looked not only doable, but immersed with ingredients I knew I could get the family to eat.  As I stood in the aisle, really inspecting the book I thought, ‘Do I need another unused cookbook on my shelf?’  ‘Can’t I get this all online?’  ‘Even though it’s 30{8f7fc412540963e01285de2708386c0eb9b90942d83cb8878ebcc192ee1ea9b5} off, should I…?’  A last flip through brought me to the “Quickies” section in the back (her “quick, no-fail simple fare” ideas that included easy meals, like Avocado Toast).   I tossed it into my cart and kept on rolling.

That night, as I struggled, yet again, with what I was going to prepare for dinner, I grabbed The Can’t Cook Book and my journey began.  I know I sound like a commercial here, but unbelievably, I have had one successful meal after another ever since–be it the Turkey Bolognese, the Rosemary Chicken Under a “Brick” or the Lemon Ricotta Pancakes.  Define ‘success’ you may wonder?  In my kitchen that includes: 1) all prepared well under an hour 2) all featuring simple, natural ingredients that don’t require fancy prep (i.e. food processing!)  3) and the most important, rave reviews — my tweenager, “Mom, this is actually good.”    Eight-year old girl twin, “Can you make that special breakfast tomorrow morning?”  Eight-year old boy twin, “I guess I like broccoli.”   My mornings are always rushed, but you ought to see what I’ve been whipping up for breakfast these days–frittatas, french toast made with challah and something called “The Granny Egg.”  I’ve even been doing the unthinkable: taking pictures of my finished dishes and texting them to friends.

Have I had misfires?  Oh yeah — something went seriously haywire with the Hoisin Halibut and the Roasted Lemon-Thyme Portobello Mushrooms.  But I have worked my way through that cookbook and been preparing something from it five out of seven days of the week for three months now.

Have I conquered all of my cooking fears and become so obsessed that I’m planning to blog about food 24/7?  Of course not!  But I deeply felt the need to write about it on this housebound snow day, today.  I can say that I almost enjoy cooking lately and have caught myself embracing something I never had before in the kitchen: pride.

I kind of wish the book was called The Can Cook Book because it’s given me some (hopefully not false) sense of being able to cook, which, if nothing else, for someone like me, is a place to start.

Check out Jessica’s recipes on her DoItDelicious website and her How-to videos  on www.tccb.co