Cooking

When I was a child, I had no idea that I was living an unusual life. That the other Mothers were not out planting in the rain because it was a fruitful day on the lunar calendar! I did understand that my mother was the exception to the stay at home rule, but it never occurred to me that my father broke the mold too! Gosh, I really had no idea that the other Dad’s did not teach their daughters how to cook, eh?

No matter what else I may use herbs for, in the beginning I began growing them for one simple reason! Fresh culinary herbs were simply not available in small town grocery stores! As a sidebar note to that, most herbs have a multitude of uses …. so in no time at all I was wandering down a whole new series of garden paths exploring all sorts of possibilities!

Here in Nova Scotia, one might not be able to actually ‘spice’ up hard core fifty mile diets! Happily for the purists … and all the rest of us who just enjoy the bounty …. most culinary herbs can be grown anywhere in our province!

Lucky, lucky me that I was able to earn my ‘daily bread’ for so many years as a cook! Generally, folks really liked what I made ….in no small part because I have always loved to use good fresh herbs! This section represents the short answer to the question people keep asking me … “when are you going to start posting your recipes?”

Over the years, my recipe file has begun bursting at the seams! From fancy formal functions to festivals through to every day simpler things, I have accumulated such a treasure trove that it really would be too much to try to share everything!

Nor should I! Life is too short to take time out of the garden to recycle anything already available in a cookbook or recipe site! So one thing that I can promise is that any recipes that I do post here ( with no warranty implied or otherwise ) are all orginal bits that were written and tested by myself! If you are looking for Chicken Oscar, go to the Recipe Link page to find a site that you like! On the other hand, if you want my bread recipe …. go to Frugal Foods!

Occasionally, you might find a recipe in the blog …. but odds are to even it will be for dog treats or cookies of some sort 🙂

While there are no recipes in the Celebrate section, folks have told me that they have found it useful for organizing family celebrations and festivals. I know from experience that there is a world of difference between having proper facilities with skilled staff and the challenge of improvising with what is actually available 🙂

Unless one is a line cook needing to reproduce the same experience in the same way to meet customer expectations, there really is no right or wrong way to cook! At the end of the day, it is only a shame if noone bothers to make a meal taste good!