My Instinct to Cook....

This is my FIRST post for my brand new blog! I wasn't sure how to 'kick it off', but it was pretty easy to decide my first post once I read the week's topc for the GBE 2 writing group. The topic is "Instinct". It came to me rather quickly that I should blog on one of my strongest compulsions, my "instinct" to cook. Like so many people, I grew up in a family where food was an expression of comfort and love.

I can remember my mother making homemade doughnuts, fresh from the fryer! And we all loved her peanut butter cookies...the first batch would be scarfed down, hot from the oven, before the second batch even made it out of the oven! My mother made these things called "Pasties"...I really hadn't heard of them or seen them elsewhere down South where we lived, but I later learned that is because they are a scrumptious, Midwestern food that my mother brought with her from growing up in Michigan. The folded-over "pies" were filled with beef and potatoes and other good things! They were a lot of work, but they were good! And all these years, to this day, Mom has kept us mesmerized by her wonderful "knot" rolls! Everytime she asks what she can bring to a gathering, before she can finish asking, we blurt out, "Knot rolls!"

I have many food memories from my childhood. One of the fondest things I can remember were family Sunday dinners. Those don't seem to happen so much anymore in our society today, but I'd love to start them up again at my house for my family & friends! And I plan to do so soon.

I can remember being dressed up for Church and Sunday School and going to my grandparent's church on Tarpon Avenue in Tarpon Springs. After we'd congregate at my grandparent's house. It was an older house that had window air conditioners. I can remember us sitting in the chilled-down living room, the window air blasting away, and we'd all be talking/playing games. A quilt was hung in the doorway between the living room and kitchen to block the heat of the kitchen. Sometimes we'd venture past the quilt into the HOT kitchen, and Gran would be slaving away, cooking us a big, home-cooked meal.

When we had chicken or turkey, my cousin Missy and I would fight over the skin...that is one of the best parts, you know! And I absolutely LOVED Gran's mashed potatoes...all the food was good....the banana pudding and peach cobbler. YUM!! I've thought about those days long past when the family got together, and I thought about how we went to church then for sunday dinner after, and it made me think of the old hymns we used to sing in church. "In the Garden" is one of my Mom's favorites, and mine, too.

The love of (and instinct for) cooking was instilled in me long ago. When my sister and I were young we tried some adventures in cooking and baking. One time we set out to make a cake (without checking the ingredients list first). Once we started going down the list, we realized we did not have all the ingredients. At that point we decided to "veer off" into our own, creative direction! We were adding stuff, and then we thought that we'd like to have a pretty, blue cake (like an azure blue), so we added blue food coloring...the batter sure was pretty! But then we continued adding ingredients. At some point we added grape jelly...it sounded like a good addition, but it had a profound effect on the coloring of our lovely cake. The batter turned to an atrocious green. Yikes! We thought it might look better after baking.

Out of the oven the cake turned a near flourescent green! It was hilarious!! Once the cake cooled we decided since the cake was so obnoxiously green, we'd go ahead and do a flamboyant frosting...so we frosted it red. We presented the cake to our parents for dinner. Mom cut into it and started singing Christmas carols and Dad put us on "kitchen probation" (supervised cooking), as he explained that food was supposed to "look appealing" as well as taste good. LOL! So those were the beginnings of my adventures in cooking. Nothing has been able to tame my strong instinct to cook, and I just pick up more steam as I go along..... And in true form I have served hot pink beet risotto alongside bright green broccoli with a steak. Sometimes I never learn! LOL