cooking

What I’m loving right now December 2015

December 17, 2015 by Jo Leave a Comment

At Thanksgiving this year, a conversation began while I was sharpening the carving knife before dinner. Every year Honey and our daughter like to pick out some sort of kitchen gadget for me. Sometimes its a stocker stuffer, sometimes it’s a gift under the tree. We had a few good laughs as we remembered some of the more unusual ones, like the rubber steamer bag/basket thingy. Yeah, I never used it. It just didn’t seem right to cook fresh vegetables in silicone. Over the years, many of the gadgets have found their way to the Goodwill bag.

I really enjoy cooking and for me, part of the enjoyment is the chopping and dicing. Last year brought a custom made cutting board that has shown up in several of my online photos. Honey ordered it from a craftsman that rents a temporary space most weekends in the Wenatchee Pybus Public Market . With the board is usually my most used knife, a Wusthof Classic Santoku . This wasn’t a gift, but its worth mentioning because a new cook in your life might love this knife, too.

Devoted Husky fan warming up homemade tomato soup and grilling sandwiches--love you Mamma Bo — Devoted Husky fan warming up the fresh tomato soup and grilling sandwiches–love you Mamma Bo

Even though there have been duds, many items have had staying power. The first addition to my Le Crueset collection, a cherry 5 1/2 quart dutch oven has been used over and over. The size has been perfect for my small family and I still use it 1-2 times a week. This pot might be why I never use my crockpot any more…or maybe I don’t use the crockpot because I need a screw driver to turn the broken nob and I never know if I am setting it on high or low.

Anyway, back to Thanksgiving; the electric knife sharpener has also been used over and over and again. Sharp knifes are the BEST kitchen tool. After advice from The Great White Hunter (Honey’s youngest brother who keeps his hunting, fishing and pocket knifes razor sharp) I received a Chef’s Choice sharpener . Once you go electric, you will never go back to a wet stone or manual sharpener again.

What are you loving right now?

Rookie mistakes and fish stew

November 21, 2015 by Jo 1 Comment

The more I think about it the more I recognize the voices from my past rolling through my thoughts. Honey might call it my reticular activating system: I thought he was making that up the first time he said it out loud. One sibling taunt was the word, “Rookie!” Used in a derogatory way to indicate you didn’t know what were doing. Like striking out when you were up to bat.

I’ve had a lot of rookie mistakes in my life. As I was making chili the other night I remembered once when I tried to make Cioppino. It was a newlywed cooking disaster– Honey & I still laugh about it after 30 years. I brought the recipe home after tasting the delicious soup at an office potluck. If I had the Internet and Google in 1985 I would have looked up several recipe options, read reviews, learned from other’s mistakes. I may not have made it had I known it was fish stew. Instead I had a few scribbled notes on a yellow notepad.

Honey was golfing so I spent my whole Saturday & most of the week’s grocery budget making this soup. My notes called for 2-4 fish heads. I went to a local fish shop and got 2 huge King Salmon ones. The counter guy said that would be plenty and gave them to me for free. I also bought scallops, shrimp and crab. I stewed ’em up, those heads, all day, until the eyeballs fell out. That should have been a warning sign. It was kind of gross. OK, really gross. I strained the fish parts out and finished the recipe. (I saved the eyeballs to show Honey later; appetizing, right?)

I set the table with our wedding china, placemats, candles, everything. I was SO EXCITED for Honey to come home so we could eat. Well the soup was horrible, so fishy, like eating fish oil. I was shocked it didn’t taste like the one from work. We tried to save the seafood by straining and rinsing. We ended up ordering pizza.

So what went wrong? Well, I never once tasted the stew as it was cooking. And, turns out my co-worker used 2 little, tiny lake trout heads. Oops. Sometimes only those close to us see our failures. Sometimes we are publically humiliated when we make mistakes. The key is to not let our past errors define our future. It’s ok to be a rookie. We have to start somewhere, right?

Who taught you how to cook?

October 19, 2015 by Jo 1 Comment

I am the youngest of 5 kids. By the time I was 9 or 10 and interested in the kitchen, my 3 oldest brothers no longer lived at home. Scotty, 2 years older, was deep into sports and hardly ever home for dinner. My dad was rarely home before 8 or 9pm. My mom became a warmer. She worked full time and was progressing in her career. She warmed up Swanson TV dinners, Campbell’s soup, made Hamburger Helper, Kraft Mac & Cheese.

I went off to college with my warming skills, knowing little more than how to brown ground beef. I didn’t even know how to chop a vegetable, as mom always used dried onions, garlic & onion powder, Johnny’s seasoning.

I got married. Honey knew how to cook. His mom taught him if you have a recipe and the ingredients you can make anything. Together we started going to the library, checking out cookbooks and making our grocery list. On a tight budget we made dinner together most nights. I got pretty good at following a recipe.

But I REALLY learned how to cook from the Food Network. I watched Rachel Ray cook her 30-minute meals. Ina Garten, Giada De Laurentiis became my obsession. I watched Bobby Flay, Guy Fieri, Iron Chef, Mystery Diner, Restaurant Impossible. I became inspired, downloading recipes, studying and copying their skills. My family was always willing to try something new. The only dinner table rule: everyone try a bite, no negative comments until dinner was over. We voted with our thumb if we would try the recipe again. Many never made it back to the table. Some recipes were down right awful.

The Chew was my cooking turning point. Michael Symon encouraged me to figure it out with what I liked, what I had in the fridge. Michael and the rest of the Chew crew suggested lots of options when they shared a recipe; substitute this protein for that, use this veggie or spice instead of what the recipe called for. My confidence grew. My knife skills improved. I really started to enjoy cooking.

Last night I made my version of Mackenzie’s Spaghetti Squash with Thai Peanut Sauce. I used what I had on hand; stir frying a few shrimp and bok choy to add on
top. It was delicious. Yummo!

Leave a comment on your cooking story. I would love to hear how you learned to cook, what recipes you love to make, who your influences were. Jo

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