Category: cooking

Cooking Up Bliss

Secretly I’ve always loved to cook as there is something magickal about mixing up ingredients and creating something special. However, my inner domestic goddess was always doing battle with the person I thought I wanted to be as I NEVER wanted to be labeled a housewife and if I fessed up to loving to cook, someone would label me a housewife.

It’s only been in the last few years that I’ve realized that having a job in corporate America and loving to cook are not mutually exclusive. I have a couple of people to thank for that light bulb moment. The person who gets the most credit is one of my fellow manager’s at work. She bakes like no one’s business and her desserts would be worthy of shelf space at any bakery in the world. She’s also a kick butt type of gal who is former military intelligence. No one would ever mistake her for a housewife. After chowing down on a few of her incredibly delectable treats, I realized that maybe it really is okay to cook in the kitchen and in the boardroom.

Since John has his heart attack, we’ve gotten serious about what we eat and it was mind blowing to read the labels on prepared food and see exactly how much sodium they contain. I realized that if we wanted to eat well and not feel deprived, we’d have to get serious about cooking our own food most nights. I invested in a Heart Healthy Cook Book and between that and the Internet, we’ve been eating healthy and eating well.

I’m also rediscovering my love of cooking and realizing that being in the kitchen surrounded by the wonderful smells of food makes me incredibly happy. I used to dread coming home from work and having to figure out what to fix for dinner because it was just one more chore on my checklist. However, I’ve recently reclaimed that time as my buffer between work and home and now I come home, put my apron on, put on my cooking shoes, turn on some Motown and fix up some wonderfully flavorful (and mostly heart healthy food). While the food is cooking, I do a load of dishes or tidy up and by the time dinner is ready, I’m out of the work zone and into the home zone.

Rediscovering my inner domestic goddess is giving me a deeply satisfying kind of bliss that comes from accepting and acknowledging my whole self and not just the workaday self who heads off to the office to play hardball with the guys.

French Bliss

I picked up a copy of My Life in France yesterday at Barbara’s Bookstore at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. I had some time to kill while waiting for John’s surgery to be done and after all the hype I’d heard about Julia and Julie, I was curious to read about the real Julia Child. At the time, all that I knew about Julia Child was that she cooked French food, had been in the OSS, and had a TV cooking show.

My earliest impressions of Julia Child came from coming across her TV show on PBS when I was a child and, sad to say, from the Saturday Night Live skits. I hate to admit it, but somehow I gathered that she was rather opinionated and snobbish and not someone I’d like to know. I’m not exactly sure how I drew that conclusion, but suffice to say she wasn’t someone who interested me until the whole Julia and Julie thing came about.

Picking up the book, with the picture of Meryl Street as Julia on the cover and thumbing through it, I was impressed by the humlity and humanity I saw reflected on the pages. I started reading it when I got back to John’s room and I found myself getting drawn into Julia’s foodie adventures. My mouth watered as she described the butter laden treats she learned to cook in France, I felt saddened to read about her having to leave her beloved France, and I cheered for her as she found a publisher who actually got what she was trying to say.

I recognized my own opinionated nature and love of travel in her stories and I was charmed as she described shopping in markets and learning to cook from scratch. I empathized with her in her search for herself in Paris. For although, I was the one with the career while John stayed home, I know how difficult it was for him on Okinawa. It’s hard to be the one following your spouse around to the far corners of the earth. I especially empathized with how hard it must have been for her to go from having a career of her own with the OSS (the precursor to the CIA) to being a dependent spouse.

Some of the recipes Julia cooked, such as the beef bourguignon look as if they would taste incredible, but some of the others like the aspics I’m not sure I could ever bring myself to try. I know that someday soon, I’ll be getting a copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking and expiremienting with some of the recipes she cooked. Even if I never become an international celebrity or public foodie, I’ll at least have the bliss of creating and eating wonderful food.

Jambalaya Bliss

Growing up we were a meat and potatoes kind of family with little experimentation in the kitchen. Once I got out on my own, started traveling the World, and watching the Food Network, I realized there was more to life than meat and potatoes and started exploring with the tastes of many nations. I’m still fairly conservative around food, but I am getting more adventuresome and will go for sushi on my own and absolutely love ceviche.

One of the dishes I’ve discovered is Jambalaya. The mixture of meats, spices, and vegetables is tantalizing. I’d never eaten jambalaya in a restaurant, but I’d heard about it and wanted to try it so when I found a Rachael Ray 3o minute or less recipe, I ventured onto the wild side and gave it a whirl. My son and I fell in love with Jambalaya over that very first pot (Caitlin loves the taste, but as a vegetarian, I have to make her veggie only jambalaya). Over time, my recipe has evolved a little from Rachael’s into it’s own dish.

My Super Special Jambalaya

2 cups cooked white rice
2 tbs butter
2 tbs olive oil
1 lb chicken breast cut into bite sized pieces
3/4 Andouille sausage diced with the skin removed (you can make this with chorizo, but Andouille is best. They sell it at Whole Foods)
1 small onion diced
2 stalks celery diced
1 green pepper diced
14 oz diced tomatoes in sauce
14 oz chicken stock
2 to 3 tbs of flour
6 oz (1/2 bag) of frozen okra (fresh works too, but frozen is easier to find)
1 lb shrimp (I use frozen cooked and take the tail off)
Red pepper to taste
Cumin to taste
Salt to taste
Cayenne pepper to taste (optional)
Creole seasoning to taste(optional)

Melt the butter along with the olive oil in a large pan (frying pan with a lid works best) on medium heat. Once the butter is melted, cook the chicken until it is browned and then add the sausage. Cook together for five to 10 minutes or until the sausage is cooked.

Add the onion, celery, and green pepper to the pan with the chicken and sausage. Cook for about five minutes until the vegetables are soft. Sprinkle the flour on the pan and cook for three more minutes.

Stir in tomatoes, broth, and spices and cook about 4 more minutes. Add the shrimp and okra and cover. Let cook until the shrimp and okra is cooked (5 to 10 minutes).

Serve the jambalaya over white rice and enjoy a little bit of Louisiana bliss.