[nabs-l] Cooking Questions

[Karen Anderson]

Hi All,

These are all good questions, and there isn't one thing that works for
everyone. I recently graduated from the Louisiana Center for the
Blind, and I think getting good training is one of the best things a
blind person can do. But I realize that it isn't always the right time
for training, so here are some of my suggestions in the mean time.

To start out, there are lots of meals that can be made in the
microwave. Frozen dinners only require that you take the plastic tray
out of the box, peel back the plastic a little way, and cook it until
all of the food is hot. There are also single serving packages of Mac
and cheese and hamburger helper, along with things like mini pizzas
and pizza roles, that can be cooked in the microwave. And let's not
forget our childhood friend spaghetios. These aren't particularly
amazing, but they work.

As someone who lives alone, I love my little toaster oven mostly
because i don't see the need to heat up a big oven when I'm just
cooking for myself. Anything that can be baked in a standard oven can,
in theory, be cooked in a toaster oven. I've even gone so far as to
buy buckets of frozen cookie dough and make cookies one or 2 at a time
so I can have fresh cookies whenever I want them. Frozen chicken
nuggets, French fries, tater tots and the like are also good in the
oven. It is fine to ask the person helping you shop to read the
directions on things, and with things like chicken nuggets if you
can't remember the directions you can cook them until you hear them
sizzling and they feel crispy to the touch. You can use a fork to
touch the item, and if the top of the chicken nugget feels rough and
crunchy under the fork it is usually done. You can also carefully
touch the food with the tip of your finger. If you take the food out,
bite into it, and decide it is still cold in the middle you can always
put it back in the oven for a few minutes.
If your oven is already marked, like I think you said yours is Kerri,
then you can ask a sighted friend or neighbor to come and tell you
which dot marks which temperature. Hopefully it is marked in a logical
way so that 1 dot is at 250 degrees, the next at 300, 350, and so
forth. The temperature gets higher the farther to the right you turn
the dial.

the stove may be a little more intimidating, but with practice you can
become comfortable with it, too.
To brown hamburger, place the defrosted meat into a frying pan. Turn
the stove onto medium heat, which means the dial is pointed at what
would be 5 or 6 o'clock. Hold the handle of the pan with one hand and
take a spatula in the other. Find the meat with the spatula, and use
it to chop the meat into little pieces by pressing down on the meat,
then finding the big chunk of meat again and repeating the process.
Once the meat has been chopped into pieces, use the spatula to
continue stirring. While the meat is cooking it will be sizzling, and
it will feel sort of wet and slippery under the spatula. When it is
done the sizzling will slow down and get much softer, and the meat
will feel coarse when you stir it with the spatula.

To scramble eggs, crack them into a bowl and add a little milk and
seasoning. Then beat them with a fork until they feel all liquidy,
rather than being able to feel the yolk in with the liquid. Then put a
frying pan on the stove and turn it to medium heat. Put just a little
butter in the bottom of the pan, and once it is melted pour the eggs
into the pan. Take a spatula and stir the eggs continuously until they
start to feel thicker and almost chunky. Then, take the pan off the
stove, put your eggs on a plate, and enjoy them.

Keep in mind that you are probably going to make mistakes while you
are learning, and not everything is going to come out perfectly the
first time. The best thing to do is to keep trying and learn from your
mistakes. If you burn the meat one time, the next time you cook it
take it off the heat a little sooner. And remember that sighted people
burn things, too, so it isn't just because you are blind. The hardest
part of all of this is getting up the nerve to try it for the first
time.

I hope this helps. If you have more questions, feel free to ask.

Karen