A rose by any other name - basic vegetables

As I thought about how to end the veggie cutting and move on to other frontiers, it brought to mind when I went to Chile for the first time.  I thought that I knew Spanish before arriving.  The joke was definitely on me.  Not only did I not understand anything, there were fruits and vegetables I had never seen, and Chile isn't even a tropical country.  Now after having lived there on 3 different occasions, I just found out after bringing home persimmons from a friend's house; they are also in Chile and called caqui.  I had them when I first went to Chile, but for some reason I never made the connection.  It was then it really hit home that this food thing is a one step at a time thing and I will ALWAYS need Google to look stuff up.  :)

So let's get started with the vegetables you will probably use almost everyday if you live in the USA.
This list is the base for almost any dish that requires slow cooking or liquid.
Onions, celery, carrots, and potato or tomato
Other vegetables you will use as fillers are
Peas, green beans and corn
Some flavors enhancers you find in the vegetable section that you will also probably use often are:
Garlic, cilantro, basil, chives and oregano

Lots of people use and like parsley, rosemary and thyme.  I am not a big fan, but it is always good to see what flavors turn you on.  Here is a great starter that describes most of them.  Most important is to try them one at a time, and hey if you don't like them, no worries.  You are not being wasteful, you are expanding your horizons.  Really!

http://www.thekitchn.com/quick-reference-a-guide-to-her-108770

The Geometry of Vegetables - cutting vegetables

I thought that taking geometry in 9th grade would help me get ahead on math in high school.  What I didn't count on was having the wrestling coach as my teacher.  Let's just say that he had a very interesting teaching style and I still don't understand how I passed his class.  Between the hypothesis and the theorems, I think I may have blocked the whole class out of my mind.  Luckily, I still retain the names of shapes I believe my 6th grade teacher Mr. Palmer taught me when I considered math to be a magical and wonderful area of study.

So, what does this have to do with vegetables for the beginner?  Well, now that you feel comfortable cutting vegetables, we need to start to cook them, one of the important things that I learned is to have your vegetables all the same size.  This will help to ensure that the cooking time is about the same for all of them.  What happens though is that recipes come with their own vocabulary.  The best way to understand this vocabulary is to understand the shape and size they are referring to.

Dice:  small cubes
Mince:  Minuscule bits usually in cube shapes
Slice:  any size, but a slice of the vegetable like a slide of bread or a potato chip
Julienne: they look like sticks (and I know, sticks is not a geometrical term)
Chop: cut into pieces, any shape and any size
Cube:  cubed :)

Basic vegetable common sense

Growing up I was not a vegetable fan.  The main reason is that my mother made everything out of the can.  It was the 60's and 70's and vegetables were not the focus that they are now at Farmer's Markets, etc.  I could handle corn, but that was it.  At age 12, I was on vacation and went to a friend's house for lunch.  There they had fresh green beans just picked from the garden. To be honest, I had to ask what they were.  I knew that to be polite I had to at least try them.  After my first bite, I discovered the joy of fresh vegetables and the incredible taste that they offer.  As I have grown, I have been poor and had to cut back where I could, but I have never bought canned vegetables aside from cooked tomatoes and cooked kidney or pinto beans.  Best decision I ever made concerning food.

Getting comfortable with vegetables is essential for cooking.  Part of that is of course learning to cut them.  So we will start at the beginning and then move forward until we connect back in with meats.  Before you go out and buy a new set of knives, for now try one or two knives that are easy to hold and with a blade of about 5 inches.  As you get comfortable with them, look into all of the different types one at a time.  You will know when it is time to buy your first set.

Onions and celery are great vegetables to practice on.  They have a bit of resistance and they are not to expensive for our purposes.  If you ruin them or throw some out, it's okay, all in the name of learning to cut without cutting yourself.  Anthony Bourdain  had a great show where he showed how to cut an onion.  Here is the link so you can watch it.  http://www.travelchannel.com/video/bourdain-gives-a-cutting-lesson-11683

After you have watched it, practice, practice, practice.  You will be surprised how far a little self-confidence goes.  And are far as the crying, well it's all worth in the end.  :)

The Beginning

I began baking at age 8.  By the time I was married at age 25, I could bake any dessert; cakes, cinnamon twists, pies, bread, etc.  Unfortunately, my new husband is not a fan of sweets.  So I had to start over from scratch. :)  In this blog, I plan to share the tips that I had to learn on my own and were actually really simple if someone had only told me.  So here we go.  I hope you find these ideas helpful as you begin your own journey.

Tip 1: If you are new to cooking meats, start with cooking meat in your oven or in a crock pot  Slow cooking meat is the easiest.  To cook on the stove or the grill you have to be very careful to not overcook your meat or it will get tough.  Slow cooking takes the guesswork out of it.  For now don't worry about spices, or rubs or marinades.  Salt and pepper are the basics and are the beginning block.  Stock from the can or the box will give you the liquid you need.  Follow the instructions on the package for cooking time and temperature.  Meats are fun to cook and over the coming days we will move on to more advanced steps.