Cooking - For the Fun of It!

I love to cook. I'm not a chef at all, but I love playing with my food - literally! Italian peasant food is my realm and using more and more spices has really been an exciting culinary trip. Food is a way to be creative and I love when things come together or when my experiments in the kitchen come out great.

We all need to either do it – cooking that is, or at least we hope someone in our home will be willing to do it. Some of us who love to eat good food, learn to do a bit of cooking and enjoy all that surrounds that mystique of cooking tasty dishes. Do you need to be a gourmet cook or chef to really cook good food? Definitely not!! Just be ready to eliminate the box magic and enjoy the freshest veggies and meats.

Americans are known for being a mostly non-veggie culture. But until this decade everything in the kitchen was focused on easy and a formula flavor that can be easily gotten through using a can of soup, and packet of seasoning or tons of salt. Original flavor from simple herbs spices and fresh foods can be wonderful for setting the aura for good conversation and almost any mood. Thank goodness for the excitement for using herbs and spices instead of nothing but salt and pepper. But unless you can share the great taste with someone, it may seem strange working in the kitchen simply for yourself.

So where can you begin and have little chance for failure? How about a good red sauce to coat pasta and chicken, or how about a lovely chili or soup during the cold months of the year? A little extra time can mean a wonderful meal and a kitchen that exudes the scent comfort and family. But what if you fail the first time? Good cooking is learned and you will make mistakes, but in the process probably create your own spin on a recipe.

When it comes to cooking exactness is not as a fine art like exceptional baking is and can be played with as you develop your own flavor combinations. I love to create recipes by taking an old concoction and giving it my own twist. But mostly I love to have fun creating good food for family and friends.

Those Summer Memories...

I’m enjoying those last few days of summer as the new school year rolls into our lives. The funny thing is, I don’t have kids at home anymore but so much of what Fall is centered around school starting again and life returning to that daily grind.

Summer has many words and ideas to describe it, but fall has one – the end of freedom. It’s funny because though we only have a few weeks as vacation we adults fall easily into that “back to school,” mentality. It’s like the warmer weather sets the brain clock to slow with visions of beaches and slower and more laid back and lazy days that are reminiscent of our youth.

Life at this pace is set for that ever present summer beach read and I try to get lots read during this slower time of the year...but is it really slower or are we captured by an image that is pure memory and become the more relaxed, and less productive person simply because we want that time off like we had? Those endless summer days and weeks can be filled with memories, but I think what makes them what we strive for is our image of what has to be perfect in the rest of the year. We seem to be stuck in this, “I have to be and do perfection in my life; marriage; school; college or what ever drives your life.

Summer is that glimpse of the dream where you can fish, read that great summer book, or hike that ultimate spot. So, now that summer has only one more day – what are you going to do to make those last few moments the best memories ever?