My life as a Sous Chef

 

Yesterday I found myself browning chopped up sweet Italian sausage, ground venison, celery, and homegrown garlic on the small burner on the stove, in a bath of butter and herbs.

In the oven a tired head of cabbage was roasting, coated in dark, rich, olive oil, sprinkled with everything from fennel to Italian seasoning, with a bit more butter on top.

The basic recipe was not my idea. The methods and flavorings were.

See, I work under Becky now, as a sous chef. She works under the big yellow sign down in the village so she has no time.

I have nothing but. When she got home she assembled my contribution into deconstructed golumpki casserole, and let me tell you, it was awesome. We came away with ideas of how to make it better next time, but we really liked it. (More cabbage. Fresh cabbage. Less rice. Different, fluffier, rice) 

I have cooked since I was small, pestering at the elbows of my family in the kitchen when barely tall enough to see over the edge of the table....Uncle Larry, do you remember the horrible-looking cakes we made in Grandma Lachmayer's kitchen, all purple and green, with runny, weird-looking frosting that nobody else wanted to eat? Man, were they ever good!...

My brothers and I grew up tasting the Great Depression in the kitchens of our grandparents who lived it. We learned food from the ingredients up and how to substitute what we didn't have and enhance what we did with what was in the cupboard. Both grandmas, all the aunties, and many of the uncles, knew how to make do, and still make tasty and nourishing meals.

My next younger brother and I were cooking when we were just kids. We got off the school bus, ravenous as kids tend to be, but both parents worked, so we were on our own. Sometimes there were snackie things around the house, but that was not a major industry then, (I think there was only ONE kind of potato chip then) so we either made popcorn on the stove top, or corn meal muffins, and devoured same.

 Every single person in my immediate family cooked all through my childhood. Dad was a master at his own special bread recipe, which he would not, and never did, share with the rest of us, alas.

But it's all right. I can make bread. My brothers can make bread. My kids can all make bread...and pizza crust, rolls, muffins, etc.

Counting back, I have made at least fifty Thanksgiving dinners and many unofficial turkeys, including wild ones over the years.

However, when Becky started to get serious in the kitchen, I was admittedly in a rut. We ate good, wholesome, cooked from scratch food, but it was boring, same stuff, different day.

Now, she sees a recipe and wants to make it. No time for elaborate preparations, as she works most days. Enter mom, who is sick of thinking up stuff, but knows how to sauté and season, and has had a lot of practice. We did a whole chicken the other day, stuffed with a large onion, garlic, thyme from the garden, and sundry other spices, seasoned with sage and that kind of stuff. Made soup from the leavings. That one bird fed us four days and well. We made chicken stock, which bammed subsequent soups and sauced up a notch, big time. 

Our brainstorming and cooking by committee has produced all manner of new kinds of cookies, great (and interesting!) meals, and a lot of fun. I like it.

The other two kids have always cooked as well. Being deeply stuck in the stereotypical rut of my youth I did not expect my son to become a homegrown chef. However, since his early teens when he made lemon bars for school, entirely on his own, he has been a master in the kitchen. As a teenager he taught me things about seasoning meats and cooking wild game that I still use every day. He sends me pictures of things he cooks....and I know from eating at his house that they are spectacular. Wish we lived closer...

Liz feeds her farm family with special dietary needs things that sound fabulous to me and keeps them happy and healthy. It's her pizza crust recipe that helps us feed Ralph well, while keeping him within the boundaries of his diabetic diet.

Anyhow, I am liking this new role as a sous chef. I know how to do my part and i don't have to do the other part.

As the Barred Owl says, who cooks for you? And what do you like?