Cooking has changed. Our lives have changed. Women used to stay home and cook and clean and take care of their husbands and families. It was a full time profession, and my mother was a master of the fine art of ‘house wife’. I always loved to come home from school and smell fresh baked cookies, or the scent of spaghetti and meatballs wafting across the doorway as I entered the house. Mom would think nothing of having a cocktail party for 50 people, all homemade food of course. Dinner was always fresh, delicious, and somewhat gourmet. Mom is a great cook and experimented on us regularly. We would have Shepard’s Pie one night, and Vitella Tunato the next. Our meals were a mixture of Italian, French and American cuisines, with a little Chinese, Lebanese and Greek thrown in every now and then. Mom taught us how to enjoy cooking and baking……..enjoying our time in the kitchen. She taught us that italian dressing can include blue cheese or parmesean to give it a new twist.....a 'new italian dressing' !
Working full time definitely puts a cramp in the time I have available for cooking. When I get off the train at night it is already 7 pm…I want dinner!! I love to cook, so whatever is made during the week has to be fast and easy. Weekends can allow more time to experiment but I still tend to be an improvisational cook. Whatever I have, I use. Whatever I don’t have, I improvise or do without……..some of my best creations have been a result of creative omissions!!
I am what some people call a ‘foodie’. At breakfast, I talk about lunch, at lunch, I talk about dinner and at dinner, I talk about what we will eat tomorrow! It is a sickness, and I am sure that there may be support groups out there, but food is a happy comfort ‘spice’ in my life.
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