To say that "I love to cook" is a grossly inadequate statement. I have always associated cooking with love. Well, maybe that is not exactly true--I remember cooking with my best friend, Debbie Cotton, in their family garage. We would combine salvo tablets, other cleaners, baking soda, what ever we could get our hands on to create the perfect slug killer. I am not sure why someone wasn't killed, or at the least injured in an explosion.
Later on I did move to the kitchen and once again went at it in freeform cooking experiments. I used Nestle's Quick as a main ingredient for almost every recipe. I didn't write any of it down so now my best efforts are forever lost to civilization.
In my teenage years several of my friends joined me in creating and drinking tantilizing mixed drinks that combined all sorts of alcohol from the liquor cabinet (carefully replaced by water) that era came to an end when my father's buddy Keith Baxter asked for whiskey on the rocks--oh yeah, he noticed and promptly informed my parents. Not a good memory there! I think the drinks and resulting gastrol-intestinal problems are an even worse memory. Vodka, Rum, Whiskey and Koolaide is a really killer cocktail--literally!
Then there was the time that my boyfriend, sister, and I, volunteered to hard boil the eggs for the Lion's Club annual Easter Egg hunt. We cooked and died about 20 dozen eggs before discovering that we didn't quite cook them long enough--this came to light when we were on break and Mark wanted to show off that he could break one in his fist. I believe there is still dried egg guts on the wall under the wall tile that was installed to cover the mess.
That was not the only time undercooking got me into a jam. My first married meal was a meatloaf that took 7 hours to cook in a new crock-pot...and it was still raw.
Inspite of a shakey start I now have a pretty good reputation in the kitchen and am happy to share some of my favorites with you. A lot of my culinary skills were enhanced by the awesome cooks in my husband's family. My Mother-In-Law, Abbey; Sisters-In-Laws Deb and Con taught me a lot. ~~~~~Hope you enjoy! |
