Thursday, July 21, 2011

Obsessed with overcooking

I don't "cook", I make food. For several years now, I have prepared the majority of our meals at home. I make lunches, dinners and snacks for me and Trevor every day of the week. Trevor jokes that he has a magic refridgerator - every day, the second shelf has his food ready for him.

The meals I make are very basic, utilitarian more than enjoyable. Function instead of enjoyment. I make a meat, a carb and a veggie. Usually this is chicken, broccoli, sweet potato. I make turkey burgers with one ingredient - turkey. I make meat loaf with one ingredient - meat. Trevor jokes that I could do a cookbook of 1 ingredient recipes. We call my meat loaf - loaf of meat. None of it is fancy, but it gets the job done.

I have so many food intolerances that it is easier for me to make things simple and not have to try and figure out what ingredient is upsetting my stomach. I am so envious of my friends who cook delicious dishes. I feel sad for Trevor sometimes too. He will eat anything I make and rarely complains. Everyone once in a while, he'll tell me that he's had rice too many days in a row (like 120 days in a row) or that he didn't particularly like a certain cut of meat that I got.

For some reason, I am always worried that I would cook the meat long enough. I am afraid of getting sick from uncooked me. This means that I cook all our food way too long. I have done this for years.
Because I am afraid of this:
I usually make this:

Trevor and I joked about it a couple weeks ago and I decided to get a meat thermometer. I started using that last week and what a difference. Trevor commented last night that the chicken I've cooked lately has been so moist and delicious. He said that he told the chicken he had for lunch the other day that he had really missed its tastiness.

I was cooking some chicken last night and when the thermometer said it was done, I said to Trevor "this just doesn't looked cooked enough to me" and he said "then its perfect".

1 comment:

Keith said...

Trust the thermometer. There's also a trick when BBQ to poke the meat with the tongs, and how much it gives will tell you how well done it is.