Cooking.....

I like to cook. My mom was an adequate cook when I was a child, but it wasn't until she got competitive with the other Baptist Church ladies that she began to really branch out.  Both Hubby and I have memories of meals we will NEVER cook for our families:  Chipped beef on toast, Pork chops cooked to shoe leather consistency. Tuna noodle casserole. Spam.

I never tasted a Brussels sprout until I ate dinner at a friend's house and her dad picked some from the garden. "Salad" at our house always had some kind of macaroni or potatoes in it. I never had a piece of whole wheat bread (although we did have some awesome black Russian rye bread).

When I moved out, I was on an extremely limited budget. I learned how to balance plant proteins, and ate very little meat. I learned how to cook soybeans.  I just never learned to like them.

Over the years I've learned a lot of things about how to feed a lot of people for not a lot of money, and how to entertain, and how to get a meal together with either a little or a lot of effort, but no matter what, I generally enjoy the process. 

My Dad once said, "I never know what to expect when I sit down for dinner here, but it's always good!"  He wasn't a man to toss out a complement lightly, and I remember that one with gratitude.

DeeDee

PS It's quiche tonight.