something coming soon.
When I can figure out how to get a list of the other posts in this category here, it will be. For now, just some pictures. =)
flickr stream.
Writing Other People's Recipes is Hard.
In my general excitement over the Chinese cooking from my youth, my mom mentioned that she had written down recipes from Marina ( my best friend’s mom, amazing chef ) and that she still had the cards somewhere. At my insistance, Mom dug them up and gave them to me with the understanding that I would type them all in to the computer and send her the files.
Seemed easy enough. I can type pretty quickly, and I was excited about the recipes. Also makes for good blog content. Then I started reading the recipes. They were not written like I write recipes, nor were they like any in a book, nor is there any consistency in how they were written at all. A few start with ingredients, most start with some technique, and almost all of the quantities are non-existant. To try and make sense of these is going to require me to cook them at least once to figure out the missing information.
I am learning why cookbooks take so long. You can only eat so much, and even then, food is not free. You can only make so much food in a day. And then you start to factor in the fact that your family demands some variety in their meals, and you soon realize it could take a month or two to get through this stack of cards that seemed like an afternoon’s typing for easy content.
First recipe coming up tonight, Barbecue Pork.
posted to In the Kitchen, at 08:38 AM. permalink
your thoughts on this post:
It’s interesting to read your impression of the recipes. When I look at them, they seem perfectly clear! It’s probably because I’ve made them so many times that they just serve as a reminder of what I already know. The amount of each ingredient is fluid, because you can make as much as you want. What I realize now is that you just know what its supposed to look like, and that determines the amount. Oh well…
posted by: mom | March 23, 2006 11:13 AM
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