Most people who know me know that I have an enormous love for food. Any food. Most food. All kinds of foods. I love fine restaurants with a items on the menu that you couldn't pronounce even if you had "hooked on phonics". I love going to Jimmy Dean's and getting fried zucchini, I love going to foster freeze and getting two corn dogs and a chocolate chip shake. I love it all......well except liver. (Parents tried to pull a fast one on me when I was 8 and get me to eat it, I wasn't about to eat it then I am refuse to eat it now.) Although, I do enjoy a good goose liver pattie.......I know, seems hypocritical. And except for green peppers. I call them the selfish vegetable cause no matter what you put them in when you have finished all you can taste is the green pepper.
And it is this love for food that has grown my love for cooking food. At first it was just a fun thing to do and to be perfectly honest I think I loved the attention it got me. Come on, who doesn't make a big deal about a single guy who can cook well...it is rather rare. But for whatever reason I started down the cooking path the end result is that I love it. I spend my free time reading cook books (Jamie Oliver is my new favorite) I find myself in conversations with people about different ways to cook certain meats, how to spice things just right. I love planning the meal so everything comes out at the correct time and hot and ready to eat.
God gifted me with a sensitive palate. And like the mouse in Ratatouille I love paring flavours together. Over Christmas break God really put on my heart to be more hospitable and have people over. So now I have once again started up my hospitality night and it is a great adventure. When I present the menu for the evening to my guests I always end with this disclaimer "I have not cooked this dish before so the meal could end up being pizza or taquitos from the freezer" But therein lay the adventure.
I must relate one near disaster a few weeks ago. I had left work an hour early so I didn't have to rush like usual. I had all the side dishes done and ready for the oven, the appetizers were in the fridge waiting for company to arrive. My last step was to pull out the pork loin, roll it in the herbs and stick it in the oven. So I opened the fridge to grab the pork and realized that the pork was in the freezer still. So with 30 min before the guest arrived I was at the grocery store buying a second pork roast. Yeah that was fun. Fortunately the guests were running 15 min behind that night so they would have been none the wiser had I not had to relate the humour of it all to everyone.
Anyway, all this to say that in the blogs to come I will be sure to relate many of the adventures in cooking of this amateur Gourmet.
1 comment:
I LOVE Jamie Oliver. He's my favorite chef personality. I used to record "Oliver's Twist" and catch up on them on Saturdays. :) Those days (alas) are gone, and so are the days of cooking a lot, but I think I will get the new cookbook if you recommend it!
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