The Winter Slow Down

It’s snowing.  We were hoping old man winter was going to forget us this year, but no dice.  That and four weeks of vegetables and water make for a bored cranky couple.

Me:   “Shall we light a fire, dear?”

Chris:  “No, it’s too cold.”

What?  Truth of the matter is, if you have a real fire going, you might as well have a big window in your house open.  Nice and warm near the fire, until you step out of the room and wonder why it feels like a meat locker.  That and the heat bill will cure you of this particular romantic notion.

So, no adult beverages, no fire.  No pasta, no pizza.  No mashed potatoes.  No popcorn. 

Worse, yet, no cocktails on the porch.

So, I thought I would try a little cooking school this Winter. 

When I finally came up with a hook for a cookbook, it was about re-inventing recipes.  Not making them non-fat or low fat, but about honing your cooking skills and taking any recipe and making it better.  Developing layers of flavor from the process, instead of adding more fat, salt, sugar or starch.  Getting the most out of what you use.  Using your leftovers to maximize results.

The Recipe Page will remain the same, and I'll leave up lots of the other posts if you want to share them with others.  (Yes, please do, that's the only way I'm going to be able keep doing this.  I need lots of page hits!)

A new page, The How To Journal, has been added, with lots of pictures of the process, not just the finished results.  Because it is the process that get's you the result, not just the ingredients.  This, you cannot learn from a cooking show.  They just don't have the air time to cover the entire process (and certainly not in 30 minutes).  You know when they dump everything into a pan, and then bring out another pan with the dish all finished?  What they do in between, particularly the patience and the waiting part, that's what really counts.

That, and finally trying to figure out how to get my wireless LAN network to let me download Netflix.  We're going to need non-stop movies once football is over.

So please hang in there with me this Winter after the de-decorating, and we'll get to the deglazing.