MEME - The Cook Next Door!

Hatice tagged me with the MEME - The Cook Next Door! Now as most of you probably have read between the lines, I am not the great cook, just an ok cook. Mom and I are the party team, she cooks and I decorate. Mom can cook Thanksgiving Dinner for 30, dressed to the nines and never get a dropped of gravy on her. I cook a chocolate cake and I have cocoa powder from head to toe. She cleans as she goes, I make a huge mess and clean it up the next day. So I could not participate in the MEME without including my mom, the real cook at this house. So I think I will tagged Sherry, my best buddy from college days. She is a fabulous cook, I have had some wonderful meals at her house. At the present, she does not cook that much - I hope she starts up again!

What is your first memory of baking/cooking on your own?

(Dianne) When I was 8-year-old and I started cooking for my family. I made a pot of beans, pan of cornbread and a 1 egg cake cooked in a skillet. My mother told me it was going to be my responsibility to cook. She was working in fields pulling cotton and gardening and doing the canning.

(Kim) Trying to make a dinner of fried chicken when I was about 9 years-old. It was a total disaster. I took up baking - chocolate cookies and brownies.

Who had the most influence on your cooking?

(Dianne) Helen Corbitt. I bought my first Helen Corbitt cookbook in 1957. Chef Kankrilik, the head chef at the Hilton in Dallas. I worked with him as secretary in the catering department. One of perks was getting to eat in the Empire Room luncheon buffet for free. I tried every dish.

(Kim) My mom influences me the most. I have watched her turn leftovers into a feast and hope someday I can do the same! My best memories are coming home from a date and having my plate of food left on the stove top covered with a kitchen towel. My mom whips up pates, delicious home-made soups, fritattas...you name it, she can make it for us. As a kid, we would eat out at the most wonderul restaurants, and I would always lean over and tell her -- yours is much better, and it was!

Do you have an old photo as “evidence” of an early exposure to the culinary world and would you like to share it? (She made me wear that hat!)



Mageiricophobia - do you suffer from any cooking phobia, a dish that makes your palms sweat?

(Dianne) No.

(Kim) My first serious boyfriend left me for a woman he claimed to be perfect. One of her many talents was being able to cook Beef Wellington – when I think of that now my palms sweat and I get sick to my stomach.

What would be your most valued or used kitchen gadgets and/or what was the biggest letdown?

(Dianne) Cuisinart. That food processor has followed me all over the world. And the other most valued is a good knife. The biggest letdown is a breadmaker my daughter gave me for Christmas one year.

(Kim) Cuisinart and an ice cream maker. The worst was a pasta maker.

Name some funny or weird food combinations/dishes you really like - and probably no one else!

(Dianne) A pasta dish with kale, gorgonzola, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, Italian sausage. Also Lime Pickle, an Indian condiment made of pickled lime.

(Kim) The same kale and pasta dish. The first time my mom made that we ate until we were sick and ooohhhed and ahhhed the entire time.

Recipe:
Thoroughly wash; using kitchen shears remove large vein from kale leaves; cut into small pieces then steam. Prepare pasta and Italian sausage (either links cut in bite size or bulk). In the dish, pasta, kale, Italian sausage, crumbled Gorgonzola, drizzle balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

What are the three eatables or dishes you simply don’t want to live without?

(Dianne) Oat meal (and an orange), stilton cheese and figs.

(Kim) Homemade pinto beans (mom makes them every Monday), grits cooked with cheese and peppers (my comfort food), blackened chicken stripes.