These are a few of my favorite things…. enjoying good food

I love to cook.  I love taking my time to prepare a dish of something delectable from scratch. 

Although when I was young and forced to learn to cook I was terrible.  I couldn’t even read a recipe, let alone follow one.  There were the muffins that I put a cup of salt in the mix instead of sugar.  That was bad.  There were green shrimp curry, under cooked chicken, and hard biscuits. 

In college I was blessed with a roommate that loved to cook and used the Fannie farmer cookbook.  She gave me hope.  She also loved to bake and taught me how.  I learned how to make bread from scratch and got to the point where I could make bread without even looking a recipe.  I learned to make chocolate chip cookies, banana bread, cinnamon rolls.  I was instilled with a new inspiration for preparing food.  I also learned how to make quiche and ratatouille, one of my favorites.

Fast forward to becoming a mom.   I tried re-creating the thanksgiving stuffing my mother made, it was horrible, I now stick to box mix, we like it.  I made new traditions for my sons.

I have a few favorite cookbooks and for a while Martha Stewart taught me a few things.  Like roasting beets.

I find recipes in magazines, websites like food network.

And sometimes the new dish becomes a part of the rotation and sometimes it does not.

It’s the being in the kitchen; relaxing following the steps to prepare a dish I know my boys will love.  That makes me happy. 

I was married to an Italian man and he loved food and cooking and that aspect of our relationship worked.  I learned a lot from him, I actually loved for him to cook for me.  I thought he was a magician the first time he prepared chicken cutlets for me.  I made pasta from scratch, sauces from scratch and it was a big old love fest.

My son’s palettes are Italian and Asian with some burgers thrown in for good measure.  They are not pot roast and potato kinda guys.  When I tried to throw that in the rotation they would rebel.

I am learning to cook for myself now.  In my rotation are kale and beets and soups.  I love a good homemade soup.

I love the process of stripping the kale leaves and washing them and then slicing them into strips before putting them into a wok with garlic and onions already caramelizing.

Farmer’s Markets have always been a favorite place.  Especially in the summer when the fruit is at an all time peak.  The peaches, cherries, melons, the tomatoes.  I love the fresh carrots and beets.