Skip to main content

Getting a blog started is not so easy...but

I was asked at work the other day, what I like to cook.  It was strange, because other than my signature Spinach Artichoke Dip, I couldn't really think of anything.  This is funny because there is so much.  It makes me think about how all of this happened.  While the pop culture of cooking that last 15 years has made ideas accessible to me, I am not a Food Network Foodie.  I am inspired in the wake of the memory of my father who died in 1996 at age 50.  He cooked like I do, like a mad scientist (as my wife calls me).  My sister Brooke who embraced cooking before I did inherited my Dad's cookbooks.  Rightly so.  I had two recipes that I had perfected in 1986 when I was 20, almost 21.  These were the Mc Cormick black cooking bag for pork chops and the strange but tasty, upside down spice-dome cake that I made in Port Aransas, Texas.  I mention Port A because it is or rather WAS a different kind of place.  Smoking in grocery stores was fine and you did not need shirts or shoes in them either.  Mufflers on cars are optional too since vehicles rust VERY fast there.  I digress. 



The dome shape of the cake was because the closest thing I had to a cake pan was a stainless steel bowl.  So Brooke shared a love of more comprehensive cooking with my Dad, whereas I, shared music with him.  In the summer of 1996, as I was going through smaller items of my father's I found an index card of a recipe that he cut off a package in October 1984 one night called "turkey stuffing bake."  At 1 8years old I was surprised that I liked this since in 1984, my tastes really revolved around the fast food industry.  I also liked Shake and Bake for Pork, (as I suspect this may have been pureed and put in my baby bottles years ago).



In 1996 when I found this little yellowing index card, I immediately made the Turkey Stuffing Bake.  Not only did this bring back memories, but it opened a door I could not close.  There was something so sweet about making a meal.  Following a recipe at this point was sort of like mapping out a trip.  I loved to travel and cooking was like that. I played around with different recipes and most of the time in the early years my experimentation was restricted to grilling.



In 2000 during a 6 week medical leave from work, the final tumbler fell into the chamber.  By this point I had tried a good deal of food all over the country and even around the world and with the power of the Internet, I decided that I was going to enjoy these things in my own kitchen.  Since I was newly single, I had nothing to cook on.  So I went to the local 2nd hand store Sclafani's and picked up a used set of Farberware from the 1970's for next to nothing.  I began researching all kinds of recipes, especially Korean and Chinese and some basic french techniques.  These were awesome days.  I would go to the grocery store with something new in mind and that evening, it happened.



I knew then I was on to something and I pulled out all of the stops.  I would coast along on this Internet fed cooking discovery through 2005 when we got cable TV and found the well established Food Network.  Practical ideas from Rachel Ray, Alton Brown, Bobby Flay, George Stella and Juan Carlos fueled an already burning desire to create culinary experience.  All of this happening and yet I lacked technique.  In years to come I became acquainted with Rick Bayless, Alex Gaurnashelli, Jean Christophe Novelli, Cat Cora and many other greats.  These people inspired me and the more I cooked something began to happen, technique which is the beginning of self awareness and where your talent becomes living and breathing. 



To celebrate this coming of age, which I feel has only began I will post some photos of meals made during this time.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

You've got to get mad

   I need to create classic recipes. It is the avalanche in me that cannot be stopped. I love seafood. I make excellent mussels. Sweet vermouth, PEI mussels, cream, portabello mushrooms, shallots, garlic, cilantro, bacon. Maybe a Thai chili or two if I want to cook on the wild side.  My oh my! But now, I NEEEEEEEED to make a lobster thermidor, a favorite back in1960s-70s entertaining. The food from those old black-tie dinner party meals is rising into view once again. I know there can be wild spins on what we can do with a meal that Julia Child championed us out of our collective trepidation. 60 years later we are tampering with the maverick. But take your rest here for a moment to cook at the station of that wonderful woman who brought the housewives out of the dark ages, showing us all that family dinner had no limits. Even more so, Julia showed us that ambition and creativity were not owned by men alone. She like my grandmother, did so in a world that said otherwise. B...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Universal Antagonist

There is an underrated movie from 1967 called “The Presidents Analyst”. It tells the story of a presidents analyst who cannot talk with anyone about what he knows. This creates more anxiety than he can deal with. It leads to catastrophic paranoia. In the meantime, various government agencies are trying to kill him. The phone company (a unit with the same power as Facebook, google, and other large personal data collecting monsters) wants what he knows to further their cause of power. He ends up being  protected by a suburban “Liberal” family that has more guns the the “right wing wackos” they are protecting themselves from. With many crazy mind bending plot twists  that were  common in the movies of the late 60’s, the kind that Austin Powers liked to spoof, in the end, the main character realizes the “it’s the phone company” behind all of the evil in their lives, behind all the evil in the world. Hollywood was serious about their message in an insane package. This movie wa...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Very Personal Trap

   Someone has filled my freezers. That person is me. They are full enough for me to rearrange the contents to fit something new. Something is amiss. I am not shopping more, not hitting great sales, and have not changed my shopping habits. That can only mean one thing. I must not be cooking enough. So what is going on? Winter depression is all around like an unwanted, persistent weather pattern. I remember a time like this a few years ago. I cannot recall how I broke free from its gravity well. My ambition requires a jumpstart, and my motivation has flown south for the bitter winter season. I feel I am left with nothing, like Henry Bemis in the Twilight Zone episode Time Enough at Last. Socially awkward, Henry could not deal with people in any way whatsoever. His only refuge was found between the pages of a book. It was his special place. A catastrophic event takes the lives of every other person on the planet, yet Henry is spared. As he wanders around a post-apocalyptic city,...
Post a Comment
Read more