Are you a cook or a baker?

It seems like everyone who likes preparing food is always either a baker or a cook. Rarely both.

We are a perfect example of this dichotomy. Brandie and I both love to eat, and we love to prepare food. We take turns cooking dinner and each bake desserts frequently.

However, we do not have equal talents.

I can bake, and I love it. I can make simple cookies and complicated cakes, triple-layer cheesecakes and delicate tarts. I’m pretty undaunted by any task involving baking. Perhaps the ability stems from my deep love of all sugary foods.

However, get me to cook something as simple as, oh, say, rice, and I blanch. I literally cannot prepare rice. Something in my genetic code renders me helpless when faced with that simple task. Similarly, eggs and I don’t get along either. They end up chewy or slimy or just plain wrong. It’s not that I can’t cook at all or that I don’t enjoy it… it’s just that it takes a lot of work, and often the result is unsatisfactory.

For Brandie, the opposite is true. She looks at a recipe for Irish cream pie and gets a look of disbelief on her face. She has a habit of burning chocolate chip cookies. She can bake, but she doesn’t enjoy it much.

But boy, can she cook! Brandie makes the best breakfast I’ve ever eaten, and she’s great at experimenting with ingredients. Her rice comes out perfectly; her chicken is perfectly moist; her eggs are magically fluffy and creamy at the same time. You can’t teach that kind of perfection. I’m convinced some people are just born with it.

So, which are you? Luckily for us, we’ve figured out how to fill in the gaps for one another. Thank God, because I can’t stand my rice burned, and Brandie loves a perfectly-gooey cookie. :)

Check back tomorrow for one of our favorite easy recipes, Spicy Caribbean Tilapia. It’s always a crowd-pleaser.

Happy Valentine’s Day Eve!

-Chelsea