Bring out your Inner Chef

I consider myself a decent cook, by no means miraculous, but decent. There are several dishes and desserts I like to make when the time presents itself. This is typically the time of year when time magically appears for me (and for a lot of other people). We take time off and are given days off by our jobs for the holidays, which can be a blessing or a curse for some. I take it as a blessing and use them to enjoy myself cooking, eating and socializing.

Not long ago, we had a pot-luck in the office and I made, what is now considered, my "famous" Kahlua cake. It's a recipe I found online years ago, but have since altered to my own personal tastes. It's funny because I really don't like chocolate cake (too rich), but many of my friends of the European persuasion absolutely adore it and I like it a lot myself. It sort of tastes more like a brownie than a cake. It's incredibly rich, but smooth on the palate. I present this cake and it usually disappears before the main courses. I think it's the icing. It's not a cooked icing, so the alcohol is very prominent in the taste of the cake. Granted, it's no more than you'd find in a cold syrup but for those sensitive to the stuff, it can make people who eat it very happy after a few bites.

I think that's the joy in cooking for me; seeing other people marvel over your food or ingest it with ecstasy. "This is the best I've ever tasted! I've got to have the recipe." An even more ego-stroking comment is, "I tried the recipe, but it didn't turn out like yours." Oh, I love that! The best of my recipes have alcohol, but I also make an apple crumble that my mother can't seem to get enough of. Again, it's a recipe I found online that I altered for her tastes. The first time I made it, she wanted more of the topping and asked that, when I make it again, I double the topping. So, I did. The result would put a restaurant to shame. It was divine! Top it off with a scoop of ice scream? Heaven.

Desserts are my specialty, but I can make a lot of other things. For example, there are two items my hubby can't get enough of: my fried chicken and my homemade, barbecue chicken pizza. The pizza and chicken are actually quite healthy, if you can believe that. I'll post them (eventually) on my recipezaar site soon. The chicken is fried in olive oil, instead of canola or vegetable. There are also two ingredients (tomato soup and dried salad dressing) that give the chicken a distinctive taste. After having my chicken, no other chicken will do for hubby, now. Oh, we still buy from KFC occasionally, but he'd much rather have mine.

The pizza? I grill the chicken and use fresh ingredients; chopped onions, freshly sliced mushrooms, fresh grated mozzarella cheese, and whatever his BBQ sauce de jour is, currently (it changes with the wind). He loves it! Last year, my kitchen became an assembly line when he asked that I prepare three of these: One for the night shift (his shift) at work, one for the day shift (overtime) and one for the house. They all got rave reviews. Now that I think about it, that's a lot of dang cooking. I must love him or something.

Enough food talk for now. A portion of a post I created a while back reared it's ugly head again last night. Hubby was taking the garbage out and it seems the husband of our neighbor had returned from Arizona to settle all the craziness here in Utah with his wife. I guess she's really been hitting the meth hard and got very upset when he called her on it. She started to hit him and their girls were there to witness the event (not good). He called the police, pressed charges and she was removed from the home for the entire night. He feverishly worked to get out as much of his stuff as he could, seeing that she would be allowed back in the home by 5:00pm the next day. He was telling all this to my hubby and hubby said he was like, "Yeah, I'm trying to hurry before she gets here because I really don't want to have to deal with her or have something else happen in front of the girls. Oh crap! Here she comes." She pulled up just as they were talking. Hubby excused himself and came home.

It's so sad. She was such a good mother. Hubby said that her hubby (soon to be ex) said that she's lost nearly one hundred pounds. She's all gaunt and skinny. She basically looks nothing like her former self. He (the husband) told my hubby this is the second time she's been on this stuff and each time, it's been because her meth-head mother has been around. Their house is pending sale, but he (the husband) says she's trying to pull out. It's so evil and vindictive. I hope they get things squared away over there and soon.