Creative Culinarian

This has been a long-time coming and sometimes felt a bit overwhelming as I tried to embark on creating a website/blog/recipe collection that can help home-cooks create dishes for everyday meals to spectacular dinner parties.

I have no formal training. I call myself self-trained and I try to expand my repertoire in the kitchen to always create something a little special. I began my cooking journey when I left college after a two-year stint where I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I started with something pretty basic: Potato soup. My mom made potato soup and it was pretty easy to put together. She taught me how to fix it without a real recipe. “You cut up enough potatoes to fill the pot leaving a couple inches for celery and onions.” That was the beginning. I learned through trial and error. One time, after I was married, I invited people over for a big pot of potato soup. It was a bit different than the soup my mom made (big chunks of potatoes, smaller pieces of celery), but overall no one complained. And, if I remember correctly, there were no leftovers. Always a compliment.

The first few years of that marriage, I did a lion’s share of the cooking. Some meals were thrown together in the interest of time and money; others were more complicated. I consulted my mom to make Thanksgiving dinner and she said it was all very easy: just put the bird in a pan, smother with butter, and baste occasionally. It turned out okay, but I never took the bag out of the bird, so it cooked with that little bag still inside. I also didn’t know how to make gravy like Mom. I think I used a box of stuffing or some variation, and the rest I don’t remember.

That first marriage ended after 17 years and after, I had the impression my ex would starve because he did so little cooking while we were together. He apparently did not, and he made sure she ate when she wasn’t with me!

After we divorced, I met my Mike, now my husband. He impressed me with his cooking skills. The first meal he made for me was flank steak and a baked potato. I was smitten. I had never dated anyone who cooked. “This one’s a keeper,” I thought to myself! Since that date many years ago, we have spent many hours in the kitchen. He makes a killer pan-fried filet mignon. And, he is a great kitchen companion. We don’t get in each other’s way and we also respect what we each do well.

I also want to add that the first meal I made for him was citrus grilled salmon with garlic mashed potatoes and asparagus. Mike doesn’t like vegetables. I don’t remember if he at them with utter disdain or not. I was really proud of myself for pulling off a meal for someone I cared about. Another great thing about him was when he met my daughter, he brought her chocolate milk and Cheeto Puffs!

Another thing about me is I am a teacher. I have taught Writing/English Language Arts for over 10 years at my present position. I usually teach high school juniors, but will occasionally branch into other grades as needed. Juniors are great! When they come to my classroom, they are sometimes a bit squirrely and by the end of the school year, they have settled in and we try to have fun. Also, in past years (particularly during COVID), I branched out and taught Culinary Skills. The first time I taught it, COVID hit and we didn’t have students in class for the remainder of the school year. The next time, I taught it online using cooking videos with the assistance of my husband. He was my camera guy! And I had a fellow teacher who edited my videos. I was proud of them, even though some were monumental flops! I even had a Youtube station, although I cannot, for the life of me, figure out what happened to it. I am not the most technical person I know, so some of the videos ended up in the black hole of video land. When we had students again, I taught it in a classroom with a rather antiquated kitchen at my disposal. I also had a great Teacher’s Assistant who had her own set of cooking skills which she taught as well. My first major cooking video/class was Potato Soup, a recipe (in my head) that I’ve been making for years. It is versatile and delicious. My very good long-time friend (Brenda) has also been making this for years, after I gave her the recipe, which was well before I ever had ambitions of teaching or sharing recipes via the internet. I feel like cooking is a great way to teach chemistry, although in the one chemistry class I observed when I was an undergrad, I was way out of my league. But cooking involves so much more than just following a recipe, which has its own challenges. Most of my students were so over-anxious to actually measure ingredients and turn on mixers they would forget slowing down and making sure to complete each step, which can be catastrophic. “You can’t just put all the ingredients in a bowl and turn on the mixer,” was one of my repeated “lessons.”

I like the process of gardening as well. I am not very good at it and sometimes will grow impatient with the herbs and vegetables I grow in my yard. I focused on herbs last year and was fortunate to grow rosemary, basil, Italian parsley, and sage. I loved being able to go outside and pick herbs as needed for dishes I created. I got very frustrated last year when I planted two tomato plants which did not produce a single tomato. At least I had healthy herbs. Which, it turns out, I loved having throughout the year. This year I added oregano, thyme and curly parsley. I also added dill, but it died quickly after I planted. I believe a critter got to it.

My goal for this blog/recipe collection/website is to create food that is accessible and tasty. Most of the recipes I post will be easy with step-by-step instructions and real pictures of the food I create. I like to think that anyone can cook, to quote a line from Disney’s “Ratatouille.” And most of the time, following a recipe should not be rocket science (unless rocket science comes easy for you). I tried to make things that are “seasonal.” When fresh foods are available (and herbs), I will use them.

So, after many months of planning and not feeling too confident about those plans, I’m going to jump in. In a few hours, I will post a recipe I like on warm summer days. Come back soon to see what’s cooking!