You Know What Happens When You Assume...

I've been spending a lot of time on chowhound lately, reading about other people's food preferences, restaurant recs, gastronomic adventures, and cooking techniques among other things. 

Last week, I came across a post from someone asking if there was a way to keep the kitchen clean while cooking, other than cleaning as you go. My initial reaction was that the question was almost adorably earnest. I mean, who thinks that you can have a clean kitchen without actually cleaning? No one. RIGHT???

But then it got me thinking about the time I left a seasoned steak in the fridge and a fry pan on the stove, WITHOUT INSTRUCTIONS, for the ex to cook up his own dinner for the first time in his life, ASSUMING (after years of cooking in different settings) that frying is one of the simplest cooking operations ever. RIGHT???

Well, you know what happens when you ASSUME. In addition to making an *ASS* of *UME*, it results in *ME* coming home to 

• a completely smoked out, postage stamp sized apartment, 
• my cheap nonstick pan charred beyond any usefulness, 
• my smoke detector hanging from the ceiling by a thin wire, and 
• a very hungry dude.

That post gave me a good chuckle, but more importantly, it served to remind me that assumption is one of the worst enemies of good teaching. Granted, there's sometimes a fine line between condescension and careful, thoughtful explanation. But in the end, if the aim is to help people to become truly good cooks - who can make do, adjust, detect, organize, intuit, improvise - I'd rather err on the side of caution and let my readers separate their kernels from the chaff.

So if in future recipes, you read something like...

1) Place the sofrito vegetables in a saute pan over medium heat with 2 Tablespoons of olive oil and sweat them for 5 to 7 minutes until the onions are translucent.

2) Gather all the dirty dishes you don't need any more and wash at least 3 or 4 of them (5 minutes is longer than you think).

...I hope you'll understand that it doesn't come from any underestimation or inclination to make an *ASS* of *U*. Rather, it comes from a very true and earnest desire to teach well and help my friends become better cooks, not just in technique, but in organization and efficiency as well.

Off to do some dishes (and laundry and floors and a few handfuls of weeds)...

shinae