Bill gave us this new Sibling Assignment:
Write about what's been occupying
your mind in the world of food preparation. Have you been trying anything new
and different? Are there recipes or cook books that have excited your
imagination? Utensils? Appliances? I think you get the point -- go about this assignment however you'd like -- but write about your life
in the kitchen, going back as far as you'd like.
You can see where Bill write about heat and light here, and Christy writes about Reading the Cookbooks here.
I have come to realize that I like to cook for other people
in order to get positive feedback on what I have prepared.
I LOVE cooking. But I
went through a dry spell not wanting to cook anything. As I look back, I think it was because I gave
up trying to please the picky eaters in the family, and just quit. I felt defeated, so I quit. Oh, I would get something out on a plate, but
it wasn’t about preparing a meal any more.
This changed when I started fixing meals for my mom in the
evening. I finally had someone who
appreciated what I cooked for them. And
it made a difference in the time I took to plan and prepare the meal.
Now it is different with my husband Paul. He is not picky, and pretty much likes
everything I fix. So maybe because there
was not challenge, it was hard to fix something for just the two of us.
So I enjoy trying to find ways to prepare different meats
Mom buys. Tonight I am preparing a pork
tenderloin. We are having a family
dinner at our house with Mom, Bill, Christy and Everett. So what to prepare? I still have some apples that need to be
eaten, so I found a recipe where you roast the pork in sliced up apples and
onions with a mustard/apple cider vinegar glaze. It sound wonderful. Then I have some vegetables I am going to
roast, and fix a salad.
My favorite meal of the year is Christmas Eve. We pick a different country, and fix food
from that country. It usually consists
of an appetizer, soup, salad, main dish, vegetable and dessert. I love preparing these large meals with many
courses. I like being stretched to try
another country’s cuisine.
My best friend April has moved to Italy. Before she left, our other best friend Kellee and I prepared for her an Italian dinner using a mostacciolli recipe that I had received from Kellee's mom when I was in junior high. I loved finding that recipe and preparing it for April, because there was a connection with not only Kellee's mom (who recently passed away), but also a relative of April's who probably shared the recipe with Kellee's mom. And I loved it when I heard the words "This is delicious". It warmed my heart.
When I began cooking, I remember Mom giving me free rein in
the kitchen. No hovering. No asking me questions. I picked a recipe, and figured it out. The first cake I made from scratch was a
pineapple upside down cake in a skillet.
I remember making Sauerbraten.
And this was I was in grade school and junior high. I like trying different things. And my dad, bless his heart, would at least
try them.
Lately I have been getting back into food preservation
again. This year there was a bumper crop
of apples, so friends passed on some of their crop to us. I have canned apple pie filling and made
apple butter. But no crock pot apple
butter for me. I went through the
process of cooking down the apples, then putting them through a food mill to
get the pulp, then cooking the pulp for about 2 hours or more after mixing it
with apple cider vinegar, sugar and cinnamon.
Then processed them in the canner.
I also made some jam.
I still have other fruit in my freezer that I want to make into
jam. I have also been baking pies lately. I love baking pies. Pies are my favorite dessert, when they are
made right.
One of the questions posed in this assignment was, “Are there recipes or cook books that have excited your
imagination?” I feel like I have been
going back to basics with some of my cooking.
My red Betty Crocker cookbook gets pulled out the most. I loved it when my daughter Zoe wanted to
make Macaroni and Cheese for a work potluck, and wanted my recipe, because she
likes it the best. All I had to do was
snap a photo of the recipe in the Betty Crocker cookbook and send it her
way. My pie crust comes from that
cookbook. I also have some recipe
collection cookbooks I received as wedding gifts that have some of my favorite
recipes.
Pinterest has become a fun way to
find recipes, too. That is where I found
the recipe for preparing tonight’s pork loin.
And Friday night, Mom wanted potato soup, but a very plain potato
soup. Pinterest came to the rescue. I modified it a bit, but it worked!!
So I move onward in my meal
preparations, and wait in anticipation for the sounds of "Mmm mmm good"!!
.
