Eating @ Home

So, it's been a while. Winter is in full swing. Lots of cooking @ home. We haven't been eating out as much and we're just enjoying it!

Cooking is fun if you approach it like that. There's no right or wrong. It is all about what you like.

I watch a lot of cooking shows. Right now, I'm a Tyler Florence fan. Jacques Pepin is also a huge favorite of mine. These two guys make cooking look fun and "doable". And, their dishes always look like they taste great.

I have been a cooking show junkie for over 25 years. I spent a lot of time on the weekends watching Julia Child and the great Pierre Franey cooking on my local PBS channel. Cooking fascinated me. I always wonder why I never went into the business.

After many years watching, I seem to have gotten the hang of it. I am by no means a professional, but a good home cook. Strictly amateur. I love trying new things, as well as cooking tried and true dishes that I love. My favorite thing of all time is lasagna. It is the dish I always asked my mother to make for my birthday. Her lasagna was the best. It incorporated meatballs and sausage, as well as ricotta and mozzarella. No bechamel in her lasagna. That's not how she did it.

I am also getting into BBQing. Not grilling, but BBQing where you cook low and slow. I use a charcoal Weber 22-inch BBQ. I smoked a turkey for Thanksgiving in it and it was fabulous! Used applewood. It came out so nice. I will do that again.

Taking whatever ingredients are around and putting together a dish is something that I wish I could do better. I often look in my pantry and on my spice shelf and wonder what Alton Brown or Emeril would do with what I have in there.

Adventurous would be a label for me. If I could cook bison, ostrich or armadillo every day, I would. I like the mixture of fruit with meat. I enjoy how simply some parsley or a squeeze of lemon perks up a dish.

It's fun. And when I "hit one out of the ballpark", it is so satisfying. To hear my family enjoying and complimenting what I cooked makes it all worth it.

And, bringing the family together around the table for a good meal leads to good conversation and brings us all closer together. It's something I hope never ends.

Next up, I want to talk about cookbooks. If you have a favorite "go to" cookbook, let me know.