When I was growing up my mom was a homemaker. She stayed home with my siblings and I. She made dinner every night. And I'm not talking hot dogs, I'm talking about lasagna, pot pie or Italian sausages with mashed potatoes. Everything was always at least semi homemade. Those are the best memories. Of course I don't live at home anymore and my mom isn't a stay at home mom anymore either yet she still cooks dinner for my dad and siblings. She still did this while she went to nursing school and now even when she works full time on the graveyard shift. I never appreciated it at the time. When I was younger she cooked for 7 people every night! That's crazy!!!
This has to be where my love of food and cooking started.
My nana is also a very talented cook. She always made/makes the things other people don't make as often because they think it takes to much time or the ingredients are to hard to find. But everything is always amazing!! She is truly someone I look up to and go to for advice when I need help.
When I moved out of my moms house with my boyfriend (now husband) I didn't know how to cook anything. We mainly ate stuff that was easy. (I.e- hamburger/tuna helper or tacos. A lot of takeout too) I literally had no clue how to cook. Someone else always had cooked for me. When I moved out I missed my parents and siblings a lot so we talked on the phone everyday. Mom would always tell me what she made for dinner and so would nana. I missed those home cooked meals. So I started teaching myself to cook. Well at first it wasn't anything special. I would make pork chops with shake and bake, instant mashed potatoes and canned corn. I was so proud of myself. But it was always missing something.
I then started watching A LOT of cooking shows on food network. But they were always making things that "looked" to hard or with ingredients I had no idea where to get. Little did I know you could pick up a Fresno chili at pretty much any grocery store. I started noticing all these ingredients in the store I never knew they actually carried. So I would experiment with the cooking show recipes. I had a lot of failures at first of course but when something even half way turned out ok it was incredible. I was so proud and so was my husband. He was very impressed. That made me feel good so I kept wanting to experiment and try new recipes. I began to love cooking so much I became obsessed. It was all I could think about. (And honestly it still is.) It was fun yet relaxing all at the same time. I taught myself how to chop fast and multi task. My nana and I would spend and hour and a half on the phone talking about recipes. (We still do!)
Something that I learned after starting to cook was that you need to have an open mind. If you find a recipe that you want to try but it calls for a Fresno chili and you can't find one then use a jalapeño! Or if something calls for Crème fraîche use sour cream! Or just be creative. I strayed from a lot of recipes because I didn't know substituting wasn't a bad thing. My eyes are open now. I'll try anything and I substitute all the time!!! Everything turns out great 97% of the time. You just can't be scared. I think that's what makes a good cook. Just be creative. Make it your own!
I wish I would have figured that out sooner. Cooking awesome food really isn't all that hard. You just have to put some "love and passion" into it. I know that sounds cheesy but it's true. I think a lot of people don't try new things because they are scared or don't think they can find the right ingredients. For example I make Beef And burgundy. But I don't actually use a burgundy wine. I just use a cheaper red wine. Something that was more budget friendly. It is one of my husbands favorite meals! I found the beef and burgundy recipe in Julia Childs cookbook. But I made it my own recipe. I used the red wine in place of the burgundy and I didn't buy pearl onions I just used a good ole regular white onion. I made a couple other changes also. (Ill have to post the recipe sometime for you guys.) I'm sure it tastes different from the original recipe but it was one of the best things I've made.
I never truly discovered my love for cooking until I had moved out on my own. I taught myself how to cook. (Well Mom, Nana and food network helped me out too.)
So in this blog I want to share what I cook with you guys. They won't all be my recipes. I think explaining some of the things that don't necessarily get explained will help everyone a lot!
I cook a lot of Rachael Ray's recipes. I feel like most of her food has really good flavor. I can read some of her recipes and be like "eh that doesn't sound super exciting" but after I make it it's full of tons of flavor I hadn't expected.
I just want to share my love of food and maybe help someone else discover theirs. :)
This is my first blog ever! Please excuse me if I ramble on all the time. And my spelling mistakes or grammar.... Ugh. How embarrassing.
Just bare with me. :)
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