My love of cooking began when I was a little girl. My mother was a very good cook, and for that matter, an excellent seamstress. However, she had no interest in being a teacher. She wanted no one in her kitchen when she was cooking, and had no patience to try to teach sewing to a little girl. We had a great relationship, but it was not in those areas.
My dad was a different story. I don't remember him ever feeling well, as he developed rheumatoid arthritis by the time I was four years old or so. What he lacked in the ability to do things that required physical activity, he more than made up for in his willingness to spend time with me doing things that were easier on him. One thing we did together was cook! He didn't do a lot of cooking, but when he did, he allowed me to help. His repertoire consisted of awesome pancakes, chili and yummy hamburger gravy. We even experimented one Saturday morning and made doughnuts. These are some of my happiest memories as a little girl.
When Wayne and I married, I was extremely limited in my cooking knowledge. Pancakes, chili and hamburger gravy only go so far, you know? We both still remember my first attempt at roasting a chicken. I searched and searched in all my brand new cookbooks, trying to find something that would tell me the temperature for the oven and how long to bake the chicken but to no avail. I had to do something so I guessed ... incorrectly! I remember being so embarrassed when we sliced into the chicken and it bled all over the serving dish. Wayne was a great sport though. He quickly decided that the solution was simple. He cut the meat off the bones, we put it in a frying pan to finish cooking it, and made sandwiches.
Currently, I scour the Internet searching for interesting dishes, and we both watch Food Network constantly. Yesterday for instance, I decided to make homemade fish sticks using a recipe from a Giada de'Laurentiis show on FNC. They turned out so awesome, even if I used salmon instead of halibut. Believe you me, finding ingredients in south Texas is a challenge! Anyway, this afternoon, I made some Italian doughnuts called Zepoles. We watched "Giada at Home" a couple of days ago and this was one of the recipes she demonstrated. Of course it reminded me of making doughnuts with my dad, so I had to try them. Yum!
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| Zepoles ... Italian doughnut holes
Tonight I decided it was time for some comfort food so I
made a huge pot of goulash using a Paula Deen recipe, and creamed peas from
Pat and Gina Neely. Just because we live in a trailer doesn’t mean we have to
eat out of a can!
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