Thursday, January 26, 2006

She's Cookin'


I like to cook. I love to eat. Growing up we all helped prepare meals. My parents were not meatloaf and casserole cooks, we didn’t have a scheduled menu like most families. As a single person with no family to cook for I really don’t know how they had the creativity and organization to cook unique meals every day. Some days it was vegetarian, some days Asian inspired stir-fry, soups, curries, occasionally we had red meat, mostly poultry or fish. My mom is Italian – need I say more? Chicken Piccata was one of my dad’s specialties.

I rarely cook for myself. To me, cooking alone is no fun. I enjoy a kitchen full of people helping to cut, stir, add flavoring, changing recipes, tasting, talking and creating.

BQ living does not lend itself to gourmet cooking. Especially when all you have is a refrigerator, microwave, coffee pot and blender. Some people do quite well, cooking all their meals in crock pots, George Foreman grills, rice cookers etc. I rarely have the time or inclination to cook in my room. I miss having a kitchen, and miss having people over to cook dinner. Luckily many of my friends here have housing with kitchens. Christmas Eve was spent this year at a friend’s house making homemade tamales, and Christmas Morning we had brunch at another friend’s house. I decided to bring a fruit pizza. I had never made or had one before, but suddenly the idea popped into my head. It was a huge success, and it looked beautiful! That just might become a standard potluck item for me. Kwaj gatherings are often “bring a dish to share” parties. (One of my other favorites is Spicy Thai Noodles – Quick, easy and tasty.) So, here is a picture of my fruit pizza. I tried to find the recipe I used on-line….but it has disappeared. Google fruit pizza and you’ll find plenty of recipes. Basically a cookie dough crust, cook it, cool it. Mix together cream cheese, whip cream (I used ½ fat cream cheese and fat free whip cream) a little vanilla, some lime juice and spread it on top of the cooled cookie, then start creating your top!

3 comments:

Jenn @ Frugal Upstate said...

ohhh! looks yummy!

Anonymous said...

Please come home, we have a fully stocked refrigerator, electric stove, microwave etc.

Love Grandpa

Anonymous said...

You HAVE to make this creation when Ellen & I come out to Kwaj! It looks AWESOME!!! Very creative!-Thank you for the lovely comments about the creative cooking that we did as a family. It was always something that your Dad & I enjoyed doing with and for our family. It is a very basic parenting concept, nourishing your offspring. I loved Grandpa's comment!