About me
I did not cook for years. I ate out almost all the time and if I did prepare something at home it was usually a PB&J. Then I went through a middle aged crisis. Instead of buying a sports car, I bought a condo and some pots and pans. The first cook book I bought was “How to cook without a book” by Pam Anderson. That helped me get started. It is a great book for beginners. (And, no I don’t know Pam Anderson.)
Now I have several cookbooks and use multiple Internet sites for cooking ideas.
In the intervening years, I have cooked New Year’s Eve dinner for up to 15 people every year and started a supper club with my friends. While cooking for a lot of people can be challenging, I find it far more challenging to cook for myself. First, I find it difficult to set aside time for just cooking. If I am busy during the dinner hour, I may not make it into the kitchen at all. Second, when I do cook I tend to make too much. I don’t mind leftovers, but three straight days of the same thing? I don’t think so. So I try to find recipes that I can cut down to one or two portions. The last thing I find difficult is planning a menu. Typically, I look in the freezer at 5:30 p.m. trying to figure out what to prepare for that night. Then try to figure out what to serve with it. This is probably not the best method.
I love all food. (Although I am not crazy about cream or cheese sauces, or should I say my system is not crazy about them). Top of my list are Asian and Indian, but that doesn’t mean that I would turn my nose up at a good steak. My favorite meat is goat. The food I eat the most is chicken. I eat mostly frozen vegetables in the winter and fresh in the summer. I love fish, particularly catfish. Not really crazy about fruit. I don’t like citrus and particularly oranges. Apples have seemed to have lost their flavor. I do like most berries, although good strawberries seemed to be hard to find. I love bread. This is a family weakness.
I have a rule about trying new foods. If I don’t like it, I wait at least six months before I try it again. If I don’t like it the second time, I try to find other ways to prepare it. If after all that and I still don’t like it. I will wait a number of years and then try again. Oranges and coconut are the only items that I have found that I absolutely won’t eat.
Cooking Influences
My parents: My mother did the day to day cooking and my father the weekend cooking. Both were great cooks.
My sister: She taught me how to appreciate salads. While we always had a salad with dinner growing up, it was treated as a side dish. My sister taught me how to make a salad a main meal.
Economy: It is cheaper to cook at home
United States Chef
Follow her
