Food for me is a great way to feel luxurious as a series of indulgences, exploration, and creativity in cooking. The kitchen is my domain, and I often bang pots and pans about, in addition to chopping loudly, and using the food processor for a variety of pestos, garlic pastes, compound butters, and viniagrettes. It's certainly not quiet when you come over to my household :-) But it sure is fun!
I believe that if you eat well, you will live well. It's why my husband and I are willing to eat a variety of foods that are beneficial to our diets. We don't do processed foods, and rarely eat fast food.
I started to cook when I was four years old. My first food memory is my dad pulling up a chair for me in front of the stove, and me putting on the child-sized apron he'd bought for me. He put a wooden spoon in my dimpled hand, and pointed at the pot of chocolate pudding on the stove, telling me to stir it. I was so excited and began to vigorously stir the pudding, sending little chocolate droplets all over the stove. My father laughed, and put me down away from the stove, thanking me for my help.
My father was very experimental in the kitchen. He'd make cinnamon raisin bread, homemade pizzas, cookies, and he made an excellent stuffed leg of lamb that I remember. My palate was always exposed to new textures and tastes whenever I visited my father during the holidays and summers. My mother made excellent dishes, but she really didn't enjoy cooking. She found it tiring, and it was easier for her to make the same twenty or thirty dishes in her repertoire such as Coca-Cola pot roast, wheat germ orange chicken, tostadas, enchiladas, spaghetti, and so on. She was happy when I was old enough to cook by myself at twelve years old, that she said she'd leave most of the cooking to me, and she would do the dishes.
That's how my junior high school and high school went, with me experimenting with recipes and trying it out on my family. They still rave about the pasta with roasted red peppers and green onions in a white wine sauce I did, the pesto cream chicken breasts, and the herb-crusted beef tenderloin I did one Thanksgiving in place of the usual turkey.
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