I’m not a chef or even one of those major foodies. Like you, I look in the pantry every day and scratch my head.
And I didn’t always cook. In my early twenties, I was the queen of grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner. But I’ve been “properly” cooking for a long time now, and am still experimenting every day nearly every most days weeks.
My mother grew up during hard times, totally self-sufficient on a farm in eastern Europe. She didn’t just plant, fertilise, pick, pickle, feed, gut, cure, smoke, milk, churn and sell, she also cooked for family and itinerant workers. Her relationship to food was always a chore.
I grew up in a different world. My relationship to food was LAZY. To cut a long story short, finally one day I decided to set myself the task of cooking a new meal each week. Fast forward to happy family dinners and dinner parties, which included my beautiful mother at the table, too.
“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”
-J.R.R. Tolkein – the hobbit
I’ve also been a writer, in one form or another, all my life. I began writing this site for my daughter, who’s enjoyed my cooking ever since I used to feed her little spoonfuls of home-made baby puree. She asked for my favourite recipes (the best compliment of all!). The site’s also a nod and a wink to old grilled-cheese-sandwich-me, and to the grown-up writer-me.
If you find something of value, that would be very cool, too.
Note on images: photos of my dishes are mine. I also use free stock photos (Pexels.com) and images in the public domain.
