How I Learned to Cook

When I got married at the ripe age of 18, I had not a clue how to cook.  If it wasn't pre-made, or didn't have 3 simple steps to follow on the back of a cardboard box ("Just add hamburger!") I was hopelessly lost.  It's not surprising; although both of my grandmother's were excellent cooks, my mother was a miserable failure when it came to the kitchen.  There were a few things she could make well, like meat loaf (of all things), but most of what we ate was pre-made, highly processed, or from a can.  I didn't realize until I was an adult that I actually did like things like peaches and asparagus, because I had only ever had them canned.  (If you've never had canned asparagus, just trust me- it's absolutely disgusting).

Lucky for me, my new sister-in-law bought me a copy of Betty Crocker's New Cookbook for Christmas the first or second year we were married.  I love this cook book and always recommend it to fledgling cooks, because it isn't just recipes.  It does teach you the basics of cooking; how to chop, dice, and julienne, how to avoid giving your family food poisoning through cross-contamination, basic cooking charts for all varieties of meats and and veggies, and so on. I used my old edition until it was literally falling apart, and after several dropped hints, received the 10th edition a couple of Christmases ago from my mother.  Thanks, mom!

Although my foray into cooking originally began out of sheer necessity- a young family starting out simply doesn't have the money to eat all processed and pre-prepared foods- it really did turn into a passion over time.  I enjoy cooking, and moreover, I enjoy feeding people!  My heart is in the down home, midwest cooking that my grandmothers prepared when I was a kid.  Buttermilk biscuits and sausage gravy, pot roasts, chicken and dumplings, bread pudding; while I might make the occasional coq au vin, nothing says dinner to me like meat and carbs! 

I also cook with real food in mind- I almost always use homemade chicken broths that are full of vitamins and minerals and gelatin, real butter, lard from local pastured hogs, farm eggs from chickens who nap in the sunshine and scratch in the dirt; these things matter! They're more nutritious, they taste better, and they connect you to the local community in ways processed junk like margarine never will.

I hope this gives you a taste of what this blog will be! Cheers!