Cooking 101

I come from a long line of good cooks.  I've been fortunate to inherit my family's cooking ability.  I get it from my mom, who got it from her mom and so on and so on.  I also married one of the best cooks I know.  Between Jason and I, we could each weigh 400 pounds easy if we let ourselves.  We love to cook and eat and we are good at both.  Some of our favorite times are in the kitchen, side by side, preparing a meal together.  I think we both express love in that old Southern way by preparing food for those that you love.

Most of what we cook, we don't do by any sort of recipe.  Being from a long line of cooks, I learned early on about a pinch, a dash, a little bit of this and a little bit of that .  Very rarely do I measure anything.  I add something, then I add a little more if I need to.

That being said, I mentioned in blog post #1 that I would post photos and some recipes.  I will most certainly do that, but please understand that most of my "signature" dishes, I don't have measurements on.  I'll do my best to make adjustments so everyone can understand, but I wasn't taught to cook with a measuring cup so I will have to do my best to clarify.  For example, people often ask be about cornbread.  The secret to cornbread is an iron skillet.  You need a good seasoned iron skillet greased with Crisco.  For the batter, I use around 2 cups cornmeal, one egg, a big dollop of mayo and enough buttermilk to make the batter moist. Use more or less depending on the size of your skillet.  Bake in a hot oven until golden brown.  Temp on the oven can be as low or high as you would like.  The higher the temp, the faster it will bake.

This is how I cook and how my blogs about food will most likely read.  For more detailed recipes, I will try to give you an ingredient list and then detail the steps.  I plan on posting recipes like potato salad, homemade mac and cheese, my grandmother's dressing recipe, Jason's buttermilk pie and others as they come to me.  I also like to can my own tomatoes and pickles, so I will be posting pictures and how I make those things during the summer.

Let's get ready to eat good this summer!!