cooking vs. baking

Everyone seems to have his or her preference. I'm not much into baking myself. But I never really thought about why until my recent food preparation revelation.

Despite the fact that I'm writing in a "food blog," I've never really been fond of working in the kitchen in any capacity. I love to eat, but I never found getting to that part to be much fun. Lately, however, I've grown sick of the regular marinara sauce from a jar (I eat a LOT of pasta) and have been throwing together random sauces involving olive oil, veggies, butter, whatever I have. It's nothing fancy, but it's been much more enjoyable, and I'm learning what works and what doesn't. This is what made me realize why I don't bake: it requires sticking precisely to the recipe. Sure, you can sometimes substitute this for that, but it doesn't always work that way. And it's not just the ingredients that are important; the order of the preparation is important, too.

I learned this a few months back when I was baking oatmeal raisin cookies with students at Chicago Youth Centers. Instead of sticking to the recipe and mixing wet ingredients, then dry ingredients, and then mixing the two together, I had the kids mix the ingredients in whatever order was convenient. Needless to say, the cookies were less than desirable. Baking = chemistry.

Cooking, on the other hand, allows a little more freedom. I can skip what I want to in the recipe. Don't like mushrooms? Toss 'em. Prosciutto too expensive? Just throw in some deli ham (or any meat, for that matter). I don't have to go to the grocery store to get the specific ingredients; I can just use what's already in my fridge.

So tonight, I made rigatoni with an olive oil and butter sauce, tossed with red onions, garlic chicken sausage, Italian seasonings, garlic seasoning, salt, and pepper, sprinkled lightly with parmesan. Because that's what I had. And it was delish.