Sibling Assignment 2016.6:I Don't Need Applause for my Cooking, but a "Taste's Great" would go a long way!! #3Siblings

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"!!

 

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