# Chateau de la Tobler

## Wednesday, January 25, 2006

### Cooking and LaDale

Sometimes I see myself as a great cook, where I effortlessly create magnificently delicious dishes without breaking into a sweat or setting off the fire alarm. Of course, those moments are rare and usually end with a shake of the head and a command to stop day dreaming. Cooking, I've decided does not come naturally to me. Today I looked down at my newest dilemma and contemplated what to do next. Now, if you were a guardian angel looking down from your hovering position near my kitchen ceiling, you would have discover the current object of my woes would be the raw slab of meat prominently displayed upon my countertop. Although I am a lover of vegetables and have learned a few tricks over the years in cooking them to my version of tasteful perfection, there are times I enjoy a little meat. A hamburger now and then, tacos filled with spicy ground beef, lemon chicken cooked for exactly the right amount of time are all quite tasty but I seldom find myself cooking meat. Maybe this is part of the difficulty. A scrumptious steak is not something to be scoffed at. I just can't seen to create it in my kitchen. Determined to get it right this time, I set about wondering how to heighten the taste of my soon to be meal. Ah, I think, onions. Truly, I enjoy a bit of onion now and again and soon I am cheerfully chopping little green onion to my heart's content. But then I remember a problem. Last time I tried this, I broiled the onions into little black crisps long before the steak was even medium rare. (For the information of those who might not otherwise know, I am a well done kind of gal). So, now what? Ah ha!! The perfect solution. Call Mom. Cook them separately, she says. Grill the onions while the steak broils, then eat them together. Perfect I think. I plop that steak into the oven and set out to grill my onions. And since I'm cooking onions, I might as well add a few other things, right. So in go the chopped zucchini and after that a bit of tomato and since I'm on a roll, I add a touch of parmesan cheese to the top. Once the cheese is melted to perfection and the steak cooked right through, I placed everything on my plate and proceeded to pray over my excitingly prepared meal. Once that was done I felt like I needed a drum roll- da, da, da, da, da- And...... The vegetables were great. The steak was awful. It was tough and tasteless and not terribly pleasing to my palate. I can't tell if it's the concept that I like the meat well done, the fact that I don't spent a great amount of money on the cut in the first place, my ability, or more accurately stated, my inability to cook or all of the above. Long sigh. I guess the moral of the story is, if you are my kitchen angel hovering from above, HELP!!

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