TDG: Introducing "The Compulsive Cook"

[Fat Guy]

Janet Zimmerman (username JAZ) debuts her column, "The Compulsive Cook," in today's Daily Gullet.

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[Jinmyo]

Janet, I'm very glad to see you contributing a regular column to TDG. Your style has a certain JAZ.

[NeroW]

Bravo! This is great. I am eager to see more!

[=Mark]

I remember the epiphany I expeienced in college when cooking a big pot of stew and learning that if a little spice was good that a whole lot of spice was not necessarily better...

[A Scottish Chef]

I loved that article. Funny, informative and very engaging to read.

Thanks JAZ.

[Lesley C]

I was smiling throughout.

Thanks Janet, I enjoyed that.

[kmurine]

Great job Janet! Keep up the great writing... Your piece reminded me of my mother's fried boloney tacos and how we'd all try and spend the night at friends' houses when dad cleaned out the fridge because we knew he'd be making soup that evening for dinner...

[mags]

I also had interesting food experiences in college, with the person I refer to as My Swedish Roomate. One day, Micke and I went to the market, and bought several pounds of fresh mussels. Coming home, I found a phone message telling me I had to leave for New York immediately. "What should I do with the mussels?" Micke asked. "Uhhhh......cook chopped-up garlic in some oil, throw in the mussels and a little wine, cover the pot, they're done when they open, eat'em up yum yum," I tossed over my shoulder, packing frantically.

Came back three days later. "How were the mussels?" "They tasted funny." "Hmmm," I said. "That's too bad. Maybe they had gone off." Later that night, as I was cleaning the kitchen, I opened the cabinet where we kept oil. I saw olive oil, corn oil, sesame oil.....lemon oil furniture polish. "Micke," I called out. "What's this doing here? Why isn't it under the sink with the rest of the.........oh my god. You didn't." But of course, he had.

Then there was the chicken. I had bought a chicken, cooked it into soup, turned bits of the meat into chicken salad, and thrown the bones into the garbage, where they soon got covered with coffee grounds (actually, Micke tended to re-use them; he called this "Cambodian Coffee"), eggshells, and other delectibles. Went to class and rehearsal, came back late, and sniffed the air. "Oooooh, somebody's made DINNER!" I said happily -- and with some surprise, since I tended to be the roomate what cooked. "Yes," Micke said proudly. "I made chicken stew." Fab.

We sat down, and he ladled out portions of very thick red stuff with lumps in it. I poked my fork into a likely-looking lump, assuming it was a piece of chicken. But no. It was a piece of, yes, banana. Apparently, Micke had grown up in a part of Sweden where bananas cost about eight jillion dollars a pound. Entranced by cheap bananas at the local market in Boston, he had bought a bunch and brought them home. But what to do, what to do? Inspiration had struck! He fished the chicken bones out of the garbage, carefully washed them off (in retrospect, I am very grateful for that touch), put them in a pot with cut-up bananas, covered everything several cups of ketuchup, and let the whole mess simmer for, jeez, quite a while.

Yet another bonanza for Three Aces Pizza We Deliver Till Two.

[snowangel]

So, Janet, just what would you have done to "cowboy sandwiches?" (grind spam and velveeta together, smear on smushy hamburger buns, and broil) THis from my friend who makes terrific tapinade and generally has great taste in things edible.

[elyse]

Nice article JAZ. A fun read.

Mags and snowangel, you should copy these tidbits into the "she thinks she can cook, but can't" thread. Or, the "There was nothing in the house to eat" thread (I'm paraphrasing).

[bigbear]

Good read. Thanks, Janet.

[jogoode]

Hi Janet...I loved your article. I'm in college now, and I see some of the worst eating behavior imaginable. The fridge in my house is filled with I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, skim milk and low-fat yogurt, and cooking typically involves the microwave. Fortunately my roommates and I no longer share groceries, and I have my own section of the fridge stocked with full-fat goodies.

[Monica Bhide]

Great piece Janet.. you roommate sounds a lot like my sis, when she was learning to cook...now she is quite good!

Look forward to reading more of your work

Monica

[srhcb]

A great article. I often poke fun at eGullet for a perceived tendency towards pretense, but this was a piece of genuine solid writing.

THANX SB

PS: I once had a friend who was a "terrible" cook but didn't realize it. Turns out he had no sense of smell!

[Rhea_S]

Very funny article! I was laughing out loud while I was reading. It reminded me so much of college. I had three roommates, but I only shared groceries with one of them. The two of us never had problems. However, one of the other roommates liked to experiment. Her most memorable meal was also a chicken stew with bananas -- no ketchup but I'm quite sure she used almost a whole bottle of rice wine vinegar. The apartment smelled absolutely terrible.

[Seatern]

The ground spam and velveeta recipe is what my family calls Pizza Burgers. They now, thank god, replace the spam with ground beef. Interestingly, this is a meal that has been served from 1950 to the present at the Howland Public Schools in Ohio.

Although I now like to think I enjoy slightly more sophisticated food, there is nothing like a good pizza burger with potato chips eaten in a swim suit at the beach house for lunch--reminds me of being a kid.