cooking appreciation

Sundog Rising!

Reflections on living the life literary by the Urban Sundog

By God, I Love My Pens!

I remember my future wife-to-be forcing me to make scrambled eggs one morning back in the early eighties, because she would not tolerate the concept of a man who couldn’t cook.

To her credit, she had the nerve to eat what I made. Even though no one had ever seen scrambled eggs that colour before …

Yes, I managed to make it to adulthood with no concept of how to cook, and with only a very limited exposure to eating good food. The less said about the meals in the family home as I grew up, the better.

I didn’t really begin to cook regularly until I was practically 25, and then Crohn’s Disease set in when I was 29. I became a serviceable cook, developing a few strong points over time, but as my various medical conditions combined against me over the next 20 years, I had a harder and harder time just appreciating eating. There were days I simply couldn’t. Whole weeks where the finest gourmet cooking would taste no better than ashes. My system just didn’t take to the concept.

Then 10 years ago, at 48, they cut the tumour out of my heart, the Crohn’s settled right down, and by God I developed an appetite!

And after the better part of 4 weeks on Winnipeg Hospital food, I was ready for something good.

About 7 years ago, I took over the bulk of the cooking for our household, and when I finally left my day job 4 years ago before that killed me too, I dedicated myself finally to getting good at this food thing. Subscribing to Food Network somewhere in there helped tremendously as well.

Last year, I underwent a bit of an epiphany in the kitchen. We laid the basis for this happening the year before by having our ancient, 100 year old kitchen completely redone, making it more efficient all round for food preparation. I swear I became a better cook automatically by having a more effective mise en place to work with. Just changing the juxtaposition of the stove as it related to the fridge made a difference.

But at some point last year, in a gradual sense — I couldn’t name one particular meal that did it — my approach shifted from throwing things together and hoping for the best based on past performance, to finally having enough experience to know that if you start off with this basic principle of applying this flavour with this one and that one you’re going to get something that combines into something truly more wonderful than any of the components on their own. Suddenly I wasn’t just applying heat to this, that, and the other and tossing them on the plate. I was slowly eliciting flavours from each selected ingredient to unite in a finished whole of imaginative, yet controlled creativity.

And this is important because it’s too damn easy to take food for granted in this country of incredible plenty and endless selection. It’s too easy to fall into the trap of not being grateful for the individual bounty each and every component brings to a meal, when the push is on in our grocery stores for us to buy more and more meals already fully prepared for us. Never allowing us to know what’s really going into our mouths, or how some aspects of what should be coming to us through the natural ingredients are actually the result of added chemicals and artificial aromas used to fudge the effect.

I made what I considered to be a feast last Saturday, to share with my family and some good friends. I thought of it only as salad, pork, vegetables, potatoes and cake at first. But when I went to lay out the steps I was going to have to take to cook the meal, I needed to write out the menu in detail. Then the bill of fare magically became Panzanella with red pepper, green onions, feta cheese and olives; Roast Pork with Butternut Squash seasoned with olive oil and rosemary, accompanied by an orange-ginger sauce; Brussels Sprouts with bacon, apricots and cashews sautéed in butter; whole small yellow fleshed Potatoes in ranch dressing, green onions and lemon pepper; and Cinnamon Walnut Sour Cream Coffee Cake. And ice cream, because after all, who wouldn’t want ice cream after all that?

And don’t forget the wine.

After I wrote out the menu in full and detailed the 4 hours of steps necessary for creating it, I thought — look at all the wonderful stuff happening here! And I made a conscious effort to think of every ingredient with appreciation as I tried to use them with respect, from the tiniest pinch of salt to the Moby Dick of butternut squashes I had to wrestle with for 40 minutes before getting it into the pot.

But the ingredients appreciated the respect I gave them and came through for me in a big way. And I thought, this was such a great experience — to make and to eat — I should treat everything in life this way. Especially if I get results like this feast by taking this attitude.

In fact, I should apply this attitude to my writing. It can’t hurt.

So, by God, I honour the scribblers I write my manuscripts in! I even respect the computer I have to work with these days whether I like it or not.

But most of all, boy … 

Do I love my pens! Words, here we go. Bring on the feast!

*****

REALITY FICTION AND BEYOND!

Time to bring out the Vampire! In a Contest like this, you gotta bring out Dracula. But maybe with a slightly different point of view. “The Down For The Count Shimmy” premieres Monday, March 9th, and you can see who survives the dance Friday, March 13th. Reality Fiction Three: The Interrupted Edition continues at:

http://realficone.blogspot.ca/

So what did the rest of the inmates get up to in Dr. Seward’s Asylum the night Renfield invited Dracula in?

Episodes to Date:

Episode One: Dante-Ish — Mak’s Inferno

Episode Two: Chaucer-Ish — The Hermit’s Tale

Episode Three: Malory-Ish — Le Morte de Mak

Episode Four: Doyle-Ish — Mak the Kipper

Episode Five: Carroll-Ish — Madelyn in Wonderland

Episode Six: Stoker-Ish — The Down For The Count Shimmy

All with illustrations by the author. Working through the Contestants in order of their appearance.