The biggest difference I've noticed when it comes to British and American food is SPICES. Typically we prefer milder food in the UK (I say typically, I know my Dad likes spicy food), but Americans seem to prefer as spicy as possible. This is definitely true for me and my boyfriend, which makes cooking quite interesting at times!
He would happily eat spicy Mexican food all day everyday (and I may only be exaggerating slightly!!), whereas I won't even add pepper to my food! We're getting quite good at cooking our food in separate pans or adding spices/sauces after I've taken my portion out!
I am getting there though, the one thing I will add to is bolognaise. ("Spaghetti" to my American readers - to us spaghetti is just the long stringy noodles, bolognaise is the whole meaty sauce and pasta dish). My favourite flavouring is GARLIC. I generally think that you can't put too much garlic on something! I really confused my old housemates by adding garlic sauce to my crumpets and potato cakes, yuuum :)
Yesterday I decided to make some bolognaise for lunch, it's one of my favourite dishes but my Boyfriend isn't too big on pasta so I tend to eat it for lunch rather than cook it for our dinner. Since there only seems to be the option of HUGE pasta jars and HUGE packages of mince ("ground beef"), I cook the whole thing and then "portion it up". I freeze the left-overs in it's portion sizes to eat throughout the rest of the week, it's one of the few things I'll reheat!
I haven't quite got the hang of making my own sauce yet, my Dad did try to show me once but it tasted horrible when I tried it unsupervised and I haven't tried again yet!! But I do like to throw in some extra Garlic powder as I'm cooking the meat and sauce. This time I decided to be a little adventurous, I added some Italian Spice, some Basil as well as the Garlic Powder. Really going out there now :P
Sadly I overdid either the Basil or Italian Spice (I suspect it was the Basil), which I find a little overpowering, plus I have had a stomach bug so I only got halfway through my lunch anyway! Today I decided to try again, mostly because the mince was still in a pan in the fridge! I figured that I like the Garlic Powder, and you can't really go wrong with that, so I added some more to counter the overpowering Basil/Italian Spice. Well...it didn't quite work. I'm not sure what was up with it, I may have overcooked the sauce and something may have burnt, or I may have just done the impossible - added too much garlic! Either way, it was edible but I've made better!! Hoping it'll be 3rd time lucky when I have the last portion next week!!
I'm still learning when it comes to herbs and spices. I don't usually put any on my food, so I don't know how much is too much or not enough. Luckily my boyfriend will eat just about anything!! So long as I don't burn it, he has this big thing about burning food, which is a problem since I like my chips ("fries") on the crunchy side and he doesn't! Another problem I discovered is that I don't know what "works" on certain foods, and my Boyfriend has a tendency to just list off all my options, leaving me totally bemused! So I usually wind up just doing the same thing if I find something that I know "works". For example, his scrambled eggs in the morning ALWAYS have black pepper and garlic powder on, because I KNOW that works! I worry that must get REALLY boring, but I don't know what else I can put on them, I don't want to ruin them or anything. What I really like are the spice/herb bottles that SAY what they're for on them ("Italian Spice : Good with pasta, tomato dishes, chicken....").
The next thing I have to do is convince my Boyfriend that constructive criticism is ok. I have quite a short fuse, and I'm sensitive about my cooking. So when we were first living with eachother (back in the UK) he'd not be wholly tactful about something (in my view at the time!) and I'd just hit the roof. This means that he now simply accepts whatever I put in front of him without letting me know what I could do to improve it!! He is very good at really REALLY complimenting what he likes though, so I suppose it's not all bad, I do learn from that! :) I'm much less sensitive these days, as this blog shows - I'm learning to take it all with a "pinch of salt" and to just laugh at my mistakes. I'm also making less "rookie" mistakes, I'm more used to cooking for 2 (oh I was terrible at getting the portions right!) and I have a better idea of what he likes to eat :)
He would happily eat spicy Mexican food all day everyday (and I may only be exaggerating slightly!!), whereas I won't even add pepper to my food! We're getting quite good at cooking our food in separate pans or adding spices/sauces after I've taken my portion out!
I am getting there though, the one thing I will add to is bolognaise. ("Spaghetti" to my American readers - to us spaghetti is just the long stringy noodles, bolognaise is the whole meaty sauce and pasta dish). My favourite flavouring is GARLIC. I generally think that you can't put too much garlic on something! I really confused my old housemates by adding garlic sauce to my crumpets and potato cakes, yuuum :)
Yesterday I decided to make some bolognaise for lunch, it's one of my favourite dishes but my Boyfriend isn't too big on pasta so I tend to eat it for lunch rather than cook it for our dinner. Since there only seems to be the option of HUGE pasta jars and HUGE packages of mince ("ground beef"), I cook the whole thing and then "portion it up". I freeze the left-overs in it's portion sizes to eat throughout the rest of the week, it's one of the few things I'll reheat!
I haven't quite got the hang of making my own sauce yet, my Dad did try to show me once but it tasted horrible when I tried it unsupervised and I haven't tried again yet!! But I do like to throw in some extra Garlic powder as I'm cooking the meat and sauce. This time I decided to be a little adventurous, I added some Italian Spice, some Basil as well as the Garlic Powder. Really going out there now :P
Sadly I overdid either the Basil or Italian Spice (I suspect it was the Basil), which I find a little overpowering, plus I have had a stomach bug so I only got halfway through my lunch anyway! Today I decided to try again, mostly because the mince was still in a pan in the fridge! I figured that I like the Garlic Powder, and you can't really go wrong with that, so I added some more to counter the overpowering Basil/Italian Spice. Well...it didn't quite work. I'm not sure what was up with it, I may have overcooked the sauce and something may have burnt, or I may have just done the impossible - added too much garlic! Either way, it was edible but I've made better!! Hoping it'll be 3rd time lucky when I have the last portion next week!!
I'm still learning when it comes to herbs and spices. I don't usually put any on my food, so I don't know how much is too much or not enough. Luckily my boyfriend will eat just about anything!! So long as I don't burn it, he has this big thing about burning food, which is a problem since I like my chips ("fries") on the crunchy side and he doesn't! Another problem I discovered is that I don't know what "works" on certain foods, and my Boyfriend has a tendency to just list off all my options, leaving me totally bemused! So I usually wind up just doing the same thing if I find something that I know "works". For example, his scrambled eggs in the morning ALWAYS have black pepper and garlic powder on, because I KNOW that works! I worry that must get REALLY boring, but I don't know what else I can put on them, I don't want to ruin them or anything. What I really like are the spice/herb bottles that SAY what they're for on them ("Italian Spice : Good with pasta, tomato dishes, chicken....").
The next thing I have to do is convince my Boyfriend that constructive criticism is ok. I have quite a short fuse, and I'm sensitive about my cooking. So when we were first living with eachother (back in the UK) he'd not be wholly tactful about something (in my view at the time!) and I'd just hit the roof. This means that he now simply accepts whatever I put in front of him without letting me know what I could do to improve it!! He is very good at really REALLY complimenting what he likes though, so I suppose it's not all bad, I do learn from that! :) I'm much less sensitive these days, as this blog shows - I'm learning to take it all with a "pinch of salt" and to just laugh at my mistakes. I'm also making less "rookie" mistakes, I'm more used to cooking for 2 (oh I was terrible at getting the portions right!) and I have a better idea of what he likes to eat :)
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