kitchen

The kitchen is a very fascinating room of the house, mostly because it’s where all the food is located. Not being a total stranger to the workings of the appliances located in that area, I can put together some basic meals and/or meal items. My forte is the old style classic breakfast of grits, eggs, bacon, etc. With other meals, I am a helper, the wife tells me what to do and how much to put in and I do it.

Recalling old memories, my Dad was somewhat of a cook and had several specialties that he mostly prepared on Saturdays and/or when Mom was working outside the home. His cooking usually centered around chili and many variations of vegetable soup, dependant upon what was available in the frig, and was usually a bit heavy on the pepper. There were a couple of items that only he made for the family. One was chop suey, mostly of the chicken type, and the other I remember was his chicken dressing. Mom didn’t even make this latter item because Dad’s was so good.

Since my retirement, I have become more interested in trying out some recipes and have done that to a limited degree. One of my latest is for chicken chow mien, without the chow mien noodles, so really I’m not sure what to call it – maybe chicken chow rice. Anyway, it is from a recipe I found on the Internet, modified to suit my taste. The first time I tried it, the results turned out to be edible, but not great – even though served on rice. The second time was a bit better but still not great – I think I cooked my Chinese veggies too long.

After that I developed a yen (probably from the Chinese food) for chili. Finding recipes in two different books, I blended the two according to my taste and proceeded in the direction of being a chili creator. Recently and during this process as well, I have learned a couple of odd things about kitchen stuff. One thing is that a person cannot take a toast pan out of a hot oven without an oven mitt or equivalent.

The biggest lesson learned though was when I was exiting the pantry with a container of dried beans. My wife informed me – “you know you have to cook those before you put them in chili”. I was grateful for the information, but a tiny bit chagrinned that she felt it was necessary. :)

The beans were slow cooked for the evening and then continued cooking next morning. It was important to me to have the beans cooked well enough that they were mostly bean gravy – still identifiable as beans, but very, very well cooked. The meat was browned with the onions and spices and refrigerated overnight. The morning brought a visit to the grocery for a bell pepper and other items. Then the green pepper, the beans and the meat with spices were put together and allowed to simmer and blend their tantalizing flavors together.

The finished product became my midday meal and though it might be deemed a bit bland for most chili aficionados, it was mostly wonderful to me. One of the basic needs of mankind is to create - and I created, even if it was just a food product. I find nothing unmanly about being able to create in the kitchen – that way I won’t starve if the wife has to be away. Now I just need to learn how to clean up the place when I’m through.

No matter how many great ingredients we have in our lives, it is still a recipe for disaster if we leave God out – this is true for Christians as well, since we need Him every moment. ec