Some of My Cooking Experiences – FB2B, part 3

I can’t even remember the first time I cooked or baked. It has just always seemed like a part of life, almost as natural as breathing. From baking cookies with my mom and younger siblings in the afternoon after school to making pancakes on weekend mornings to throwing dinner parties post-college in my first real apartment, I have just always turned to the warmth of the kitchen for inspiration and fulfillment.

One of my first eating memories is of the pink birthday cake my mother made for me when I was four years old. I’m not sure why she went along with it. Pink was my absolute favorite color as a child. The frosted cake sort of resembled one of those fluffy marshmallow things sold in pairs at gas station convenience stores. I thought it was bee-yoo-ti-ful and very special. I loved it!

There’s a certain fearlessness that I’ve always had, no matter how much of a mess I make, and, believe me, there have been a few. I can’t explain how great of a feeling, the amazing sense of accomplishment, it is to be able to make something I’ve eaten at a restaurant or to master some new skill at the stove. Of course, that doesn’t mean that I’ve always been exactly successful in the kitchen, but I have been willing to try.

My mother, to this day, will bring up how I burned chocolate when I was trying to melt it for some Girl Scout cooking project. The smell was pretty awful, as anyone who has ever done this can tell you. I don’t recommend doing it ever. The reason it had burned was that I had neglected to use a double-boiler and it burned right into the bottom of the sunshine yellow saucepan I was using. Mind you, this was 20-odd years ago, but I still get to hear about it occasionally as though it is another badge – “Kitchen Fiascos” – that I should have earned towards my First Class Scout patch.

Another culinary disaster of mine, which my family is also all too pleased to recall, was the time I over-seasoned a stir-fried rice dish I made when baby-sitting my siblings. To this day, my youngest sister reminds me of “The Ginger Incident” as she likes to call it. She blames me for her dislike of this flavor. “Don’t let her make ginger chicken for you!” is her rallying cry. I swear, if I’m not careful, I can see her lobbying to put that on my tombstone. Just to let her know, if she’s reading this: If you do do that, I will haunt you forever with the scent of ginger trailing behind me.

The Backstory – FB2B, part 2

Perhaps it is best to begin at the beginning before going too far along. Now that I’ve written a bit about food and its impact on my life, maybe it is time to explain why the career shift is so important and why this is such a big deal to do. Why move from Banking to Blogging? Well, for the past several-odd years, I have been working in financial services in New York City. Originally, I began my working life in the field of international relations. A few years after I completed my Master’s Degree, I moved into the world of banking. It will probably not be a surprise to discover that I have worked on the marketing side of the business. I liked the writing, running events, and developing of ideas into strategies.

Having been in New York City when the terrorist attacks occurred in 2001, it is hard for them not to have had an impact on my life. The ability of food to bring together friends and family in a nourishing setting is only a small sliver of the power that cooks and chefs possess. In the aftermath of so much loss and destruction, food also provided the ability to heal and to feed people’s souls. I, myself, hosted several friends who were stranded in the city that night, heating up the handmade lasagna bolognese that I’d made for a party later that week for dinner. In talking to someone who counseled victims of that trauma, she said that this need to create, whether by cooking or other means, acts as a direct counterpoint and provides a sort of balancing factor to the devastation that took place.

So perhaps the move isn’t such a dramatic one, given the major changes that have taken place in my world over the past few years. (Shortly after the attacks, I lost my job as well and was unemployed for quite a while after that.) Cooking has been at the core of who I am for most of my life. I’ve lived in a couple of states and four countries and have traveled to many others. In each locale, I’ve found that the food-culture link is an essential element to my understanding and appreciation of the places I’ve been. I’ve also taken with me a stable of recipes to share with the friends I have met and made there, knowing that food is a basic human need and a fundamental level on which we are all connected. Besides, I have found few individuals who are strong enough to resist the power of a batch of homemade brownies!