Kitchen confidential

Nobody ever taught me to cook. For one, I'm the youngest of 3 girls with a working mama, so nobody had time or patience. For two — and I say this with all due respect to my mom — she's not the best of cooks. I learned what she learned (being the youngest of 6 with a single mom), which is mostly how to warm a few things up. Cooking is something far different, in my book. It entails truly understanding ingredients, techniques and how to put things together in an artful fashion. M has it naturally, since his dad's a chef. His approach is scientific and methodical (big surprise). I'm more of an intuitive cook, more left-brained about it -- which is problematic when you don't have the foundational knowledge to go from. So, a few years ago, I started trying to learn how to cook. Surprisingly, there really aren't any books that I know of that start from scratch and truly teach one how to be a cook. There are books of recipes, yes, but that's not the same thing. Recently we discovered Good Eats, and most of Alton Brown's information really helps. Most interestingly, this process has been an emotional one. It's a microcosm of so many other things -- how I don't like doing things I can't already do well, how I hate admitting when I don't know stuff, how I enjoy ignoring directions and diving right in (but how embarrassed I get when I fail). Anyway, The Jackal recently did a stint at the Culinary Institute, and he told me about his vegetable cream soup-making technique/recipe. The whole thing is just following your nose, starting with a few simple things. Already a fan of carrot soup, I thought I'd dive in. Last night I made cauliflower soup. I don't even like cauliflower, really, but I have found that sometimes it just takes finding the right cooking technique to make a food delicious. (For example: Brussels sprouts? DELISH if you just blanch them, then roast with pine nuts.) I portioned out a teeny bit of soup into 3 ramekins and did a tasting with different seasoning (just pepper, curry & nutmeg, and pepper & thyme). Each one had it's high points -- how fun! We settled on one we both liked and that was it. Turns out cauliflower can be quite tasty. Go figure. Next up? Perhaps the mysterious rutabaga.