A personal note...

I haven't been on here much this past week.   It has been a very full week and I received some life changing news.   For the past 18 years or so I've been living with a chronic kidney disease.   For most of those years it remained stable, but the past year or so my renal function has been decreasing, finally reaching the point where it seems I will be needing to receive a kidney transplant.    So there may be times when I'm not feeling up to writing or when I may be busy with other things.   However, it is my plan to continue with this blog and sharing my thoughts about food, cooking, family, friends and my life.   Keep me in your thoughts and send some good thoughts my way!   Don

On Food and Cooking

Since starting this blog I've been thinking a lot about my philosophy of food and cooking.    As I've mentioned before, while growing up food was always a part of my family's life.   My parents both came from very poor farming families in the Ozark foothills.   Food for them was something that wasn't taken for granted.   And being from a farming background, we knew where food was from.   I can remember when my grandparents still had milk cows, chickens and we butchered hogs.   I have butchered chickens and ducks myself.    We usually had a garden, even if only a few rows of lettuce and some tomato plants.   We know that meat doesn't come from a plastic wrapped package in a grocery store somewhere, that plants grow in dirt and chickens scratch in cow manure.   In food we have a connection with the rest of nature and the world.    Food is also hard work to produce and farmers are hard workers who aren't nearly as well respected and rewarded as they deserve.

But food is more than just that.   Food feeds the body and also feeds the soul.   A factory produced can of soup may feed the body, but it will never feed the soul.   Food prepared with a bitter heart may feed the body but it will never feed the soul.   When I cook,  I try to do it with love and put part of myself in it.   I cook to help feed the soul of whoever might partake.    In a very real sense, it is a communion between myself and those eating what I cook.  

My cooking is also a reflection of me as a person.   I like my food to be homey and comfort food.   But like me, it is also a bit adventuresome and willing to take risks.   It tends to not be fussy and complicated, again like me.   And like me, it is influenced by those I love and care for.   I have been very lucky to have good friends from around the world.   They love me and share their lives and culture with me.    They also share their recipes and foods with me as well.   Padre Melvin has shared Puerto Rican cooking with me.  Padre Javier and Mario have shared Mexican food and culture with me.   Diego and his friends/family introduced me to authentic Italian foods and so on.     And my friends/family around the USA have done the same.   They are all a part of me and my cooking as well.

So by this blog I am attempting to share myself, my love of good food, my love of cooking and the love of my friends and family with a wider audience.   I also invite all who read here to do the same.   Make comments, send me emails, share your food memories and recipes with me and the other readers.   Be in communion with one another.

One last note.   There is a beautiful movie that is about this very thought, communion through food and sharing a meal,   Babette's Feast.    It was first shown to me by my dear friend Joyce.   It has since become a great favorite of mine that I watch and re-watch often.   I highly recommend it!

Last Day of Christmas Vacation

Finally Christmas is over.   The weekend was quiet, as Aaron and I were pretty much snowed in.   Sunday afternoon I went out and cleaned off our cars enough for him to go home and me to get out this morning.   The plan was to sleep in this morning and then do some housework.   Unfortunately, the best laid plans of mice and men and all that.   About 8:30 I get a call from my older sister Susan.   She is at my Aunt Evenlyn's outside of Wentzville, MO.    Her and her husband are on there way home to Idaho and she was wanting to know the condition of Interstate 70 and also wanted to know if I'd be free to meet them at my younger sister's for supper.  Sure, I said and then gave her my younger sister's cell phone number.   I waited a bit and then called my younger sister to see what the master plan would be.   Grilled hamburgers and fixings.   How about dessert, I asked.   Make caramel pecan rolls and baked beans.    For some reason my family go crazy about my caramel pecan rolls and baked beans.     So off to the store to get the fixings for the above rolls and beans.   Sigh...    I just finished rolling out the rolls and have them rising on their bed of caramel and pecans.   When I get them in oven, then I'll put the baked beans stuff together.    Some time when I think to measure everything out, I'll post my recipe for cinnamon rolls.   A bit later, when I make sure I have all the measurements correct, I'll post my recipe for baked beans.