Tuesday, March 10, 2009

About Home Cooked Meals

There are different kinds of full. There's the full that you get from eating a lot of frozen pizza. There's also the full that you get from Taco Bell. But there's a more satisfying feelings of satiety of three weeks of before mentioned meals before a multiple dish meal that was made with love but people that haven't seen you in a long time.

I had to go home for a dentists appointment, and decided to come a night early to enjoy some time with my parents and a little bit more time to sleep the next morning. About a week before arriving, my mom and I emailed back and forth to find out what I was in the mood for, either homemade or going out. I replied, "Something homemade and delicious."

I get home to a large piece of round getting stuffed with mushroom and onion, asparagus being cut, a salad being tossed, and great smelling peach and apple crisp with craisins getting ready to be put in the oven. Needless to say, I need to come home more often. Second off, I need to cook more at home. I wish I had more money, but that is another subject.

There's something special about being home and your parents learned how to cook much better since high school. It's been almost three hours since two servings of everything and I'm just getting hungry again now! That's huge!

It makes me consider what I want in my life. A bigger kitchen, more dishes, and time to cook. My biggest flaw is getting too hungry to have the patience to cook. My next kitchen will have many happy memories of friends and family catching up and filling, memorable meals.

Monday, March 9, 2009

About Beef Jerky

I love getting beef jerky at gas stations. Teamed with a massive soda, I could drive hundreds of miles munching away at this dried meat, sipping Cherry Coke, and listening to some good tunes as the world blurs by. Oklahoma doesn't seem so devastatingly boring when you have a pack of Jack Links. Something about dried meat intrigues me. Perhaps I hardly got it as a kid, and now it's a novelty. Or perhaps the love and patience it takes to take slabs of raw meat, soak it in barbeque sauce for hours, then dry it for even longer. I prefer to think the latter.

One of my best friends and his wife recently made beef jerky. It was one of the best things I have tasted in a long while, and soon enough, five people demolished a bag of ten hours of patience. I would have felt bad if it wasn't for the delicacy that passed by my lips. A few nights ago, the same couple made even more jerky, this time wisely requesting a charge for enjoying the snack. The smell filled the entire apartment complex and everybody suspected something great coming from their residence. I bit into a piece. It wasn't forced, it wasn't micromanaged. It took all day, but the end product hardly has words to describe it.

Making beef jerky is how I see starting and maintaining a relationship. It should be easy, give it some time, and don't try and force it. Good things happen in time, and soon, everyone can sense it happening. Starting a relationship needs a good marinade, time to soak, and a long bath in the jerky maker. My biggest problem is what I do after the jerky is done. My first instinct is to devour the jerky with gusto. However, like enjoying jerky and a relationship, one must use the same patience as during the creation.

Taking your time while eating beef jerky makes the experience so much better. Nibble a little bit off, chew it slowly, and let the flavors fill your mouth. Take your time, and don't force it. If you do, as I often do, it will be over before you are ready to let go and it only ends in lonely tears and a bag that smells delectable.

Saturday, March 7, 2009

About Food

I love food. I love how a dish can be passed down generation to generation and one bite can represent hundreds of years of experience. I love the flavor of food, either good or bad. Good food can rescue a bad situation or define a good one, during a funeral or a first date. I love the preparation of food. You get to know people by the way they cook. A friend of mine throws ingredients together to see what happens, while I have to look at the recipe several times per step to make sure I'm doing it right.

I also know how to make things better (I'm not arrogant, I'm right), which prevents my girlfriend from cooking for me. Although I don't mind cooking most of the time, the few times she did cook ended up ended with a vow of never cooking again. Fortunately, she breaks that vow occasionally to make delicious snacks like French toast (I have learned to bite my tongue when I observe any... inadequacies). Don't get me wrong, I make culinary mistakes as well, and I enjoy compliments, but I'll be the first to tell you what went wrong and what I should do next time (more garlic!).

Some goals of mine include becoming a culinary journalist of some sort, being able to cook my family meals more often than not, and find the worlds greatest sandwich to bless our little planet. A big passion of mine is eating what tastes good. Food is my mistress, a forbidden love that has outlasted relationships, leases, and expiration dates.

Because of my love, I will tell of my culinary experiences from my perspective. Unfortunately, on a college salary, fine dining doesn't occur often. Even if I could afford it, there aren't many dine dining experiences I can partake in here in Central Wisconsin.

So join me, if you will, on my tale of romance between a skinny white boy and whatever delicious thing comes his way.