Do you cook better than you pick?

[Mr. Loar]

I do.

[Gutbucket]

My cooking totally sucks. Decon has inquired about some of my recipes.

[Don Christy]

I hear that Mike Marshall cooks pretty well. I suspect his picking is better though.
Don

[JEStanek]

Much better cook. I've been cooking for myself and or my family for twenty years. I've only been playing for 6. I wonder how Mike Marshall would answer this question. For him, they're probably similar experiences.

Jamie

Edit: Nice to see I cross posted the same time as Ducati08

[TeleMark]

I hear that Mike Marshall cooks pretty well. I suspect his picking is better though.
Don
He has a signature mortar and pestle available through the D'Addario website.

[old9600]

I would starve to death if I had to rely on my cooking or on my playing to support myself.

[miked500]

GutBucket wins the thread! awesome post http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[kudzuklunker]

Yes, and I am a terrible cook!

[Bob A]

Yes, and I'm getting fatter.

[Dave Cohen]

I caught part of a conversation on PBS between Jacques Pepin and Itzhak Perlman about whatever relationship there might be between fine cooking and performing music. Wish I'd seen the whole thing. Anyone else see it?

http://www.Cohenmando.com

[pjlama]

I went to culinary school and worked as a chef for a while, I got out of it so I could get back to gigs. I'd say I'm equal but I feel that creative people excell at creative endevors. Both cooking and music are creatve arts.

[bradeinhorn]

here's one of my recent creations. it a faux ceviche.

[bradeinhorn]

sorry for the blur. a little sharper.

[Don Christy]

I pick and my wife cooks. Though I am a certified taster for my vegan wife. She has a Vegan Blog (http://showmevegan.blogspot.com/). Ummmm tofu scramble anyone?
Don

[Gutbucket]

You mean that she picks warm and fuzzy screaming veggies out by their roots? And then eats them. Oh, the humanity!http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

[Don Christy]

You mean that she picks warm and fuzzy screaming veggies out by their roots? And then eats them. Oh, the humanity!http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif
Not only that, but sometimes she cooks them alive! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

It's been good for my mandolin playing though. She reads food blogs, cooks, takes pictures of the food. All the while unbothered by my practicing. Working out pretty well for my mando playing.
Don

[GTison]

I burn stuff in the kitchen all the time. I rarely burn anything on the mandolin. So, where does that put me?
OR
If I burn something in the kitchen everyone frowns. When I burn one on the mandolin most smile. Better at mandolin i guess

[Dale Ludewig]

Dave, I didn't see the interview you mentioned. I'll bet it was good.
As for me, I go through phases, it would seem. Lots of intense cooking for awhile, with less time to play. Then I'll neglect cooking and the playing will improve. I enjoy both a lot. And I have heard that Mike Marshall is a very good cook. I think there's a lot of similarity. Especially if it's Indian. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[B. T. Walker]

I cook better than I pick, but I've been cooking since Mom taught me to make an omelet when I was six. Didn't pick up the mandolin until my 30's.

Similarities? Practice every day, and you'll get better. You don't have to be spot-on for it to be enjoyable. Improvisation is good, but too much or too fancy can mess up the results. Clean is important. Those are some I just brainstormed. There have to be more and better examples.

What's so special about Indian, Dale? Why is it different as far as music is concerned than pad thai, for instance?

[foldedpath]

here's one of my recent creations. it a faux ceviche.

I'm almost afraid to ask but... what the heck is a faux ceviche? http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif It looks interesting, but... no fish?

Anyway, I cook much better than I play mandolin, and a little better than I play guitar. But it depends on what we're talking about. Like music styles, I really suck at some things (roasts, casseroles, jazz, bluegrass), and I'm better at others (grilling, curries, blues, irish music).

[Ken Olmstead]

here's one of my recent creations. it a faux ceviche.
Looks like chips and salsa to me!

Maybe that is also my answer to the OP! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Jim Kasperson]

Ceviche is a citrus marianated seafood salad. Faux would indicate some kind of substitution in the process or the ingredients.

Kasper

[Bertram Henze]

Standard spaghetti kit,
Irish stew,
Bacon, egg and chips breakfast,
Honey scones

that's all I know how to do in the kitchen. But I do more than just four tunes on the mandolin. I guess I am more of a picker.

Bertram

[bradeinhorn]

Ceviche is a citrus marianated seafood salad. Faux would indicate some kind of #substitution in the process or the ingredients.

Kasper
in place of the fish is diced watermelon (sort of looks like raw tuna). and then just chopped tomato, avocado and sweet corn. it's held together by just a little bit of honey mustard dressing and lemon juice. it's a pretty simple dish, but very refreshing with a good combination of textures and flavors.

[250sc]

Melon salsa. Looks good.

[Jim Broyles]

If I do say so myself, I am the cook in our family. My wife readily admits this, although she is not a lousy cook, just fairly established and doesn't experiment and create dishes, whereas I mainly extemporaneously compose dishes and meals. I would say that my picking outshines my cooking, but that is because of the guitar experience. As a mandolin picker I'm a fantastic cook.

[Jim Kasperson]

[fish is diced watermelon (sort of looks like raw tuna). and then just chopped tomato, avocado and sweet corn. it's held together by just a little bit of honey mustard dressing and lemon juice. it's a pretty simple dish, but very refreshing with a good combination of textures and flavors.
That sounds like a great starter to a summer meal on the deck. Very refreshing and less intimdating to some people that the regular ceviche. Thanks
Kasper

[fstylemb1]

My wife and I love to cook different meals for each other. We're still working on our pickin'.
I love pickin' and I love food!

[JeffD]

I used to have it in my profile: One of my hobbies is making soup from scratch.

My favorite is burgoo, which is a kind of stew made from the combination of at least three or four different kinds of meat. It comes from the cowboy days, when the trail hands would put what ever critters they had shot that day into a pot and boil them. I guess there are various related traditions around the world.

I use beef, pork, and either venison or buffalo, or whatever other interesting meats I can find. I did a burgoo with rabit once. Everyone jokes that the neighborhood cats and or dogs seem to have gone missing when I make up some burgoo.

[Jim MacDaniel]

Like Jim, I am the cook in the family, so my cooking skills are far more well honed than my music skills, since I exercise the former 2 - 3 times at day -- while I practice the latter once a day a best -- but I think my ear for music is slightly more gifted than my sense of taste. My favorite things to cook are pan seared steak or chicken with pan sauces, braised meats (esp. oso buco), risotto, stews, omelettes, and grilled-anything. (My wife is the baker, so I leave the light work to her ;)

[JEStanek]

I use beef, pork, and either venison or buffalo, or whatever other interesting meats I can find. I did a burgoo with rabit once. Everyone jokes that the neighborhood cats and or dogs seem to have gone missing when I make up some burgoo.
LOL, Jeff, I had a dyslexic moment and I read "...other interesting meats..." as other interstate meats...

Context worked and was funny. Sounds good, though.

Jamie

[Rick Banuelos]

WAY better cook than musician here, mostly because the restaurant scene in Bozeman is fairly one-dimensional. While the red meat here in Montana bests any read meat I've had anywhere else (even NYC), that's more or less where the specialty stops.

During any given week at my house, dinner will run the gamut of cuisines from traditional French to East Indian-- all made from scratch.

During any given week at my house, my picking will run the gamut of suck, from atonal to dysphonic.

It's all practice, right?

[Robert Moreau]

I think I cook like I pick. Variety is the spice of life and in picking as in cooking I can't confine myself to one particular style I like to mix and match and combine the best elements and... My god... Does that mean I cook Dawg food?!!

[Mr. Loar]

Sounds like a bunch of hungry Mandolin pickers to me. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[mandopete]

I dunno 'bout cooking, but I like to eat!

Anyone else celebrating Cinco De Mayo tonight?

[Mr. Loar]

I dunno 'bout cooking, but I like to eat!

Anyone else celebrating Cinco De Mayo tonight?
I don't know if it's appropriate but last night and tonight I'm celebrating with Jambalaya.

[Don Christy]

I dunno 'bout cooking, but I like to eat!

Anyone else celebrating Cinco De Mayo tonight?
Tonight, I'll be picking at my mando class and bluegrass ensemble class. So I'll have to celebrate over lunch with some of my wife's Chiles Rellenos de Picadillo (http://showmevegan.blogspot.com/2008/05/chile-rellenos-de-picadillo.html)

Don

[mandopete]

That looks good enough to eat!

[Timbofood]

I made the mistake of saying that I had not dated a woman that I could not outcook, My girlfriend (now wife) threw me the keys to the stove and has not cooked for me in over 20 years. #I love picking, but, I am FAR better at the stove, grill, cassreole, oven than at mandolin, guitar, bass, or that skillet lookng thing with 5 strings. Tonight: Citrus grilled shrimp, pineapple salsa, possibly a pasta course or pilaf. #I had not thought about it's being Cinco de Mayo, I was more concerned with Juleps for the Derby when I went to the store.

[Sean Greer]

No doubt about it. I can turn a recipe into fine food, but I can't turn tabulature into a fine melody (yet).

[gr_store_feet]

I am most definitely a better cook. I have been cooking for twenty years and pickin' for four. I have been a professional chef but never a professional player. And certainly right now, I would trade all my skills of former to be better at the latter.

[mandopete]

Years ago we had a recipe thread going here on the Cafe (ironic, huh?) - maybe we should revive that if the moderators are willing.

Sounds like we got some chefs online! Let's leave Gordon Ramsay out of this.

http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[Don Christy]

Years ago we had a recipe thread going here on the Cafe (ironic, huh?) - maybe we should revive that if the moderators are willing.

Sounds like we got some chefs online! #Let's leave Gordon Ramsay out of this.

http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif
We may have to keep it tied to mandolins to pass the moderator scrutiny.

Something like, your favorite recipes before a mandolin gig (jam, session, practice, etc).

http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

Don

[8ch(pl)]

Yeah right.........I'm glad I don't play like I cook.

[acousticphd]

I cook by ear, too.

[Timbofood]

I may just cook more by nose than ear unless of course it's corn.


"You know, Billy Ray there comes from Iowa, they grow a lot of corn there and you can see by lookin' at him... he brought two if the biggest ears with him!"

Addition to the menu from above: spinach fennel salad with red onion and a wild turkey butter sauce for grilled pineapple (opting out ot the salsa in favor of a dessert)
Foods not to have prior to a gig...? Raw onion, if you share a mic, beans, even if you don't.

[250sc]

I do both well enough to fool most of the people, most of the time.

[Tom C]

I cook like I pick. Pizza or Chinese tonight?

[sgarrity]

My picking is about like my cooking.....I tend to think it's a lot better than it is! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

[JD Cowles]

I too am the cook at home. My wife can handle herself in the kitchen don't get me wrong, i've just sort of taken over. It relaxes me much like picking, carpentry, cycling, reading, and all the other things that distract me from being a better mandolin player. Jack of all trades, master of none i guess.

I would like to propose that MAS has its equivalents in the culinary world as well. I suffer from CAS, CWAS, and CBAS...anyone else?

[dcc]

Ceviche is a citrus marianated seafood salad. Faux would indicate some kind of #substitution in the process or the ingredients.

Kasper
in place of the fish is diced watermelon (sort of looks like raw tuna). and then just chopped tomato, avocado and sweet corn. it's held together by just a little bit of honey mustard dressing and lemon juice. it's a pretty simple dish, but very refreshing with a good combination of textures and flavors.
hey, cool! #vegan faux ceviche. # i hope you were humane enough to stun the watermelon before you cut it open, though.

RE mike marshall, yeah, he's alarmingly good at both. i tried a timpano he made a while ago, and it was just amazing. #(timpano is that crazy elaborate dish over which the younger brother smacked himself in the head in the movie, Big Night.) # it makes sense that someone really good at one is also really good at the other-- both skills (beyond a certain level of proficiency) require high manual dexterity, attention to detail, creativity, patience, perseverance... great big marble mortar and pestle goes with one and not the other, of course. #http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[RobinG]

as a timepressed worker, father and so on, I can cook and pick at the same time whilst supervising homework and training the dog. Must try and get some of that tomato sauce off the fretboard though.

[sean808080]

that would be true. if i cooked as well as i picked there'd be a lot more hungry little ones around here lol

[Col. Suggs]

I like to pick while I bbq. #Suppose others would be better judges, but I certainly hope I cook better than I pick.

I'm writing a social history of bbq, and it's much easier to pick while I cook than while I write. #http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

Sean Busick

[Gutbucket]

Did someone say BBQ!!?? #Now I'm hungry again. I kill for BBQ. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif

[Joel Spaulding]

Cook far better than I pick - but the passion behind my picking has caught up with my love of good food. I have made few ( okay, more than a few) dishes I would be embarrassed to serve - though the same cannot be said for some ( most? many? all?)my Mandolin breaks. For me,improvisation is key to enjoyment in both endeavours.

I have been making small batches of smoked habanero sauce since 1995 - if the crop is ample this year, we may offer some bottles #at the local farmer's markets this fall.

[RobinG]

Well yesterday I made some broccoli pasta with breaded bay seasoned chicken which was devoured by all. After dinner I got out my mandolin with the intention of spending an hour exclusively on backup for 'Lil cabin home on the hill' but was allowed about 48 seconds before the protesting started.... I guess my cooking is more popular than my mandolin playing at least.
I watched the video of Mike Marshall and the salmon recipe and I have to disagree about the popular theory of wrapping salmon in foil... perhaps we are getting a little away from topic here?

[Timbofood]

I spent the Thursday prior to the Derby smoking some pork butt for pulled pork for the festivities. Used the Steve Raichlen basic rub with good results. Equal parts- paprika, salt, brown sugar, and blk. pepper. 8 pounds-about 10 hours smoking time. Most consumed product at the party!

[Timbofood]

only overshadowed by Juleps!
For some reason, no picking that day...Hmmm