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kitchen is open... welcome!
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Both
my husband and I found our way around
the kitchen at early ages and have found
much pleasure in creative cooking.
Below,
are some links to other sites with recipes.
Each site has been visited. No site has
been posted here if they have had pop-up/pop-under
advertising or any extreme, in-your-face
web promotions. We find those things extremely
annoying.
Links
for Cooks
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Story
from a Farmhouse Kitchen
My
Oma, Katherina Bihler, was a wonderful
cook. Her farmhouse kitchen had a large
wood-burning stove. As a child of five
and six, my favorite dishes from her kitchen
were dumplings of any kind, even liver
(yuck) dumpling soup!!
My
first culinary effort was a mud pie! But
Oma quickly taught us how to gather wild
Johannesberries (aka Lingon) on the village
outskirts and to mash them up with sugar.
Yummie! What could be more lovely than
sweet berries eaten while enjoying a warm
sunny bench in front of a farmhouse with
all the rich smells of countrylife around
one - hay, new wash dirt roads, ripening
wheat, and the sound of cackling or mooing
livestock.
We
learned to eat sour weed along the country
road and extract the soft wheat kernels
from the fields. There was edible food
all around us. We didn't strongly associate
food with the refrigerator because we
didn't buy food so far in advance of consumption
as people do today, freezing for weeks
inadvance of use.
Our
eagerness for farmhouse food failed us
when our pet rabbit, Sniffy, joined us
at dinner. As I recall Opa's logic : 'Sniffy
was so fat that he would certainly die
of a heart attack soon if we didn't do
something quick.' Good Heavens! Who could
want Sniffy to die of a heart attack!!
Before
the teen years arrived, a Punjabi neighbor
taught me how to make chicken curry and
chili between segments of "As The
World Turns" and "General Hospital."
During my teens another friend & mentor
taught me how to make stuffed mushrooms,
as well as many Jewish (stuffed cabbage
rolls), French (Cordon Bleu), Italian
(Ravioli) & Russian (Dolmas &
cucumber salads made with Dill) style
dishes. Reading cookbooks is not just
for old folks. As a teenager, I tried
my hand at fruit wine production from
an old English recipe book. My parents
were not too happy with the popping corks
and odor of yeast that lingered in the
garage.
Not
all my teachers have been women or books.
There have been marvelous cooks among
bachelor friends who taught the secret
of great salad dressing, vegetable sauteeing
or coffee brewing.
Bon Appetit!
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