Much of my family, on both sides, love food and love to cook. Out of my dad's 4 brother, one uncle is a professional chef and teaches at a culinary institute in Texas, one is the head of room service and beverage at the luxurious Morgans Hotel in Midtown Manhattan (and often gets tips from the head chef at the restaurant Asia de Cuba at Morgans), and the other 3 boys (including my dad) are PHENOMENAL cooks and grill masters and could all be professionals in my opinion.
I was lucky enough to grow up with both parents being excellent cooks and often sharing the duties of cooking each night's dinner... my dad typically on the meat or main course, and my mom on the delicious appetizers and sides, although often they'd switch. Growing up in such a food- and cooking-focused family rubbed off - thankfully both my brother and I (more my brother Mac) inherited some decent cooking knowledge and skills. My brother has loved cooking from a young age. When he was about 5 years old, we were already discussing the contents of the "Mac Cookbook," complete with ice cream soup, pasta in butter and/or dad's tomato sauce, the perfect way to rub apple sauce in your hair, and the egg Mac-muffin breakfast sandwich. I was a little slower to develop, needless to say, and I really just needed my own kitchen to grow into.
Every day in the kitchen is an adventure - sometimes I have a basic idea and make things up as I go, other times I follow a recipe to a "T;" sometimes my original concoctions are delicious just as often as the recipe creations major failures. But that's all the more fun for me - learning different foods, cutting techniques, kitchen tools, ingredients, and cooking methods regardless of whether the food actually looks like it's supposed to. Just last night, A and I were cooking a little too large fillet of flounder in a skillet, and I was in charge of flipping it. I failed, BIG TIME. Without a fish flipper (that's what I call it, but it's really a long, thin, metal fish spatula), I managed to turn the beautiful fillet into what looked like minced fish with some Parmesan and pistachios mixed in. It was a visual failure, but it turned out okay once I served it on top of a couscous mixture of tomato, garlic, scallion, and feta; it was still delicious.
I'm writing this blog for my mere enjoyment and to hopefully inspire a friend or two to try a recipe, learn a cooking trick, or just find a cute apron. (I've also found that it keeps me occupied on the Internet and I've decreased my online shopping to near zero; my bank account also loves this blog.)
Keep cooking up a storm,
make a mess,
and have fun in the kitchen!
xoxo
K
