Cook

I’ve been cooking, in one form or another, since I was six years old. My parents were both starting out on their own when Julia Child was first appearing on television, so “The French Chef” was their guiding star throughout the 60s and 70s. I imagine that one of the more fought-over items in their divorce was who got Vol. 1 and who got Vol. 2 of their signed copies of the first edition of “Mastering the Art of French Cooking,” because each had one of the two volumes.

Both parents grew up middle class, she in the Midwest, he in an Irish Catholic household in Boston. What this meant is that neither of them ate anything but meat and potatoes, with the occasional chicken and rice, while growing up. Julia was it. We ate Boeuf Bourgnignon, Saute de Boeuf a la Parisienne, and Coquilles Ste. Jacques for fancy meals growing up. My mother made me Lobster Thermidor for my 16th birthday. And along the way, I helped prepare dinner, chopping vegetables, setting out the butter and cream for sauces, and gradually working my way up to sous chef, cooking the vegetables and starches while they handled the meat. I quickly became the gravy and sauce seasoner at my dad’s house, being a dabber hand at the salt and pepper.

All along, I was an enthusiastic eater of good food. A little too enthusiastic, sometimes– I was a pretty fat kid. A brief flirtation with bulimia was cut short by actual illness, suspected to have been Lyme Disease. By the time it was over, I’d lost my baby fat.

College isn’t good for anyone’s cooking skills, but in law school, I learned my way around my own kitchen, and found myself being followed home by various classmates for lunch. Even when it was just tomato soup and grilled cheese, they wanted to come. I actually earned a boyfriend when he called to complain about his then girlfriend, and I said “I’m just taking some gingerbread out of the oven. Come over for tea.” And my Sunday brunches were the subject of some serious angling for invites.

After I got married, the Better Half and I moved to a more rural part of the state, and bought a share in a Community Supported Agriculture farm. All those vegetables! Some of them we’d never eaten before– kohlrabi? kale? beets! And some of them we’d never liked before– until we learned what fresh carrots, fresh peas, and fresh eggplant really tasted like. I think this was when I really learned to cook– I had to, in order to deal with all those vegetables!

During this time, we’d been eating mostly vegetarian, until I became ill and was told by my doctor that among other things, I needed to eat a low carb diet. I started Atkins, and lost 60 of 80 pounds in six months– and felt like a million bucks. I also realized during the low carbing process that I was intolerant of gluten– wheat, farro, barley, and to a lesser extent oats gave me gas, diarrhea, constipation, and a truly antisocial farting problem. Now, I will occasionally have bread or pasta, but mostly, I try to avoid gluten. I do occasionally eat rice, cornmeal, and other grains, and I do bake and cook with gluten-free flours. You’ll see that “gluten free” appears in my tag cloud. I have also tagged relevant food pictures at Flickr with “gluten free,” if you’re looking for photos.

I tend to cook fairly simply. I do have famous chefs’ cookbooks, but in the end, I tend to prefer homey meals, the kind you might have in a bistro or a trattoria. I love all kinds of food when eating out, especially Indian, Thai, and Vietnamese, but I tend to stick with French, Italian/Mediterranean when cooking most nights. I’m trying to add more Middle Eastern and Asian cooking into the mix.

I didn’t like to bake for the longest time, and I still find it fussy, but someone gave me a Dorie Greenspan cookbook, and all her recipes work, all the time. I am still an aficionada of the one bowl, one pan recipe, but I have gotten over my baking phobia.

This page has the following sub pages.

• Pantry Staples
• Kitchen Equipment
• Food and drink links
• What’s for supper?