Write What You Know

Every time I have read about writing or taken a course in writing, the one thread is always to write what you know. I have pondered that concept, and pondered it to death and decided that I had just better do it...write that is, not run a marathon.

I have been seriously cooking since I was 9 year old. Seriously. My Mother went back to work, I mean a J.O.B. not the drudgery that is being a Mother and housewife, and I was the only girl. Sometimes she would leave a note "there is a pound of hamburger in the fridge, make a meatloaf" and sometimes there was no note but a full deep-freeze in my Fathers workroom in the garage.

This really was back-in-the-day, before 2000 stations on TV. In fact, we got exactly ONE with our rabbit ears and on that one station I watched Grahame Kerr, Julia Child and I do not remember who. Of course, Kerr was not really a good influence for a 9 year old girl, but it was not until I was much, much older that I realized that he was pretty much blotto during every show. I guess the fact that he ran on stage and JUMPED over the chairs surrounding the dining table should have been a clue. I thought it was because he was British! Let's just say that I was pretty sheltered and had NO IDEA!

But those shows inspired me. No simple meatloaf for me, no sir-e-bob! I would make meals that would dazzle, would make people sit up and take notice. I would fix Gourmet food. And in the process would completely trash my Mother's kitchen.

I served meals in courses. I set the "Big" table with all the best china, multiple glasses and the good silver (it was just silverplate but it was the good stuff to me). I used the tablecloths, the cloth napkins (tho on a regular basis we used cloth because Mom felt we always had a load of clothes going and what was a few napkins to add to it), and cut flowers from the yard.

Now as far as the messy kitchen, that is a product of my own margional kitchens through the years. Mother always had great kitchens. You are probably wondering why that kitchen thing is plural. Well, we built a lot of houses over the years, and moved a great deal. And the kitchen was always the focal point of those houses. We had one kitchen that had a BBQ built into the family room wall. It was great! And the steaks that my Dad produced on that BBQ, amazing! We had bread boards as large as the hood on a car, we had marble for pastry dough. Huge pantries, windows that opened onto the patio, onto decks. They were always amazing.

The kitchens that I have had over 30 years of marriage have been sketchy at best. Several apartments, my MIL's home, one fairly good kitchen in Madera and now my current kitchen which is burnt-orange (that alone should tell you the vintage) and much too small for anyone, much less three people who love to cook. And the oven only has one rack!

But cook we do and if I could learn to throw things away (but it might have a use later), clean up (I do much young-adult son...say no more), and always, always something pending. The cukes that are sitting on the sink waiting to become bread and butter pickles, the bag of Bagels that are waiting to be cut and put into the freezer, 12 kinds of hot sauce on the counter, blueberries, canning jars..it just goes on and on.

Frazzled because I have gone back to work full-time, since my husband became disabled and we need health insurance. Frazzled because I always have 12 things to do and time for 1. Frazzled because life is frazzling, isn't it?

I want to ask you to come around now and then to see what's cooking, what grains of information I might have for you. I love to cook, I feel that what we put into our bodies is important not just for nourishment but for the pure pleasure and the sharing of ideas and tastes. I am always looking for new foods, new ways to prepare things, new exciting tastes. I think I do pretty well producing some quality food from my messy kitchen, hope you think so too.