I always tell people I came out of the shute as a foodie. I have always loved food, good food. At the age of 10, I began begging my mom to teach me to cook. She finally gave in and by 12 I was making dinners for my mom, sister and I. Maybe it was a survival tactic, I don’t know. I suspect it may have been. I firmly believe that food has a big impact on your health, too.
Homemade Apple Cranberry Ginger Pie
My mother, who was Italian, did not measure things. When she taught me how to make her fantastic salad dressing, I remember her response when I asked how much oil (always olive oil) and vinegar (always red wine vinegar) do you put on the salad. She said “Your eyes and your hands will know”. Yes, that’s verbatim.
I remember standing there thinking “Huh?, how do your hands and eyes know how much? Your brain does that!”. But asking the question again, got me no further. As a result of her patience and willingness to let me learn, we suffered eating some not so great salads. Some she was able to fix but others were not fixable. We ate them anyway. You didn’t throw food out. Yet soon, my eyes and my hands learned.
Mom always cooked that way and I learned. I do follow recipes but at times, I alter them. Something within tells me it might be better with less of this and more of this or substituting another herb or spice. I can’t explain how or why but my body or my intuition takes over. I almost always follow it. Why? Because I just seem to know and just don’t give it a second thought.
I have a strong passion for food, cooking and making your own. Even when I was single, I would make large batches of enchiladas or lasagna or stuffed shells. Then I would break them into single dinner portions and freeze them. When I came home too tired to cook, I would pull out one of my homemade meals and put them in the oven. Soups too, were made in big quantities, then frozen for other times.
I got that from mom too. She used to cook for 10 (her parents and 7 siblings) and couldn’t seem to break it down to 3! I can break it down but not if I could make my own dinners for another time. If the dish required a lot of work, I’d do a big batch and make the single servings for the freezer.
There will be more posts on food. It’s something I could talk about it a lot! Stay tuned!
How important is food in your life? Do you like to cook? Do you like to eat? How do you marry the two if you love both eating and cooking? Or how do you avoid one while feeding the other? Let me know if there is a recipe you just have to have!
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