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“How to Enjoy Life”

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Mary Jo Gaush

Have you ever thought about something you’d like to do, but for one reason or another, you didn’t ever do it, yet it kept popping up in your thoughts and wouldn’t leave you alone? Then, one day, the opportunity presented itself?

That happened to me a few years back after I had built my home and established myself in a full-time job. Believe it or not, I had some time on the weekends and wanted to do something different than what I was doing during the week.

One day I went to the Frederick Fair and noticed what they were offering at the food booths. I said to myself, “I can do that.”

I spent a good portion of my life trying to improve upon recipes, learning to make a variety of foods for my family and enjoying the results. I felt that I would like to share my passion for making food. I looked into what I needed to do to set up a booth at the Frederick Fair. It seemed doable: submit a request; secure some insurance. And, it happened…there I was, doing what I enjoyed doing, pleasing people and sharing good food.

That wasn’t the end of it, though. One day, for some unknown reason, on the weekend of the Frederick Fair where we had our booths, the doors that were normally open between us and the exhibit area were now closed. Prior to this, people would see us when they were in the exhibit area and would come back and check us out. Now, they coudn’t see us anymore and this severely reduced shopper traffic. I said to myself, “This is not going to work.”

After I had packed up my booth, I decided to go get my oil changed at the place in Hagerstown where I bought my vehicle. I was going to make the most of the day. Well, that was the best thing I could have done. As I was waiting for my car to be worked on, I was snacking on some of the goodies I had made for the fair that day. One of the salesmen wandered over and asked me where I got what I was eating. I told him that I had more in my car. He said to bring it in, and from that day on, and for the next two years, I brought the salesmen goodies every weekend. They even asked me to make meals for parties. My daughter-in-law kept telling me I should write a cookbook. But, you see, the demand kept getting bigger, and I still had this full-time job during the week. I had to make a decision: Do I want to continue making food, which I loved? Should I give up the secure future that my full-time job promised?

Well, the secure future won. I still love creating food for people to enjoy. I’m retired now, but can’t shake this thought that I should be doing something about this notion of sharing good food with people. So, the idea that my daughter-in-law put in my head has surfaced again, and who knows what might happen if I keep going in that direction. That’s what I call enjoying life. Where might life lead you, if you tried?

Recipe for Success

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Buck Reed
The Supermarket Gourmet

As a chef, I get into a lot of interesting conversations with people I meet. Mostly, it involves questions about what my favorite thing to cook is or what my specialty is. Once in a while, someone will ask me what my favorite ingredient is or if I have a favorite gadget I like to use. One girl was amazed that a chef could keep all those recipes in their head. People will often express the idea that they wish they were a better cook, to which I can only reply “then you should learn to cook better.”

So what does it take to become a better cook? Many who teach the culinary arts believe that all you have to do is demonstrate a recipe, go over it, and let the student loose. I can tell you from experience that these people couldn’t be more wrong. Recipes are a good place to start, but someone who tells you that recipes are the answer to becoming a better cook is lying to you. If you want to become a better cook you have to learn about ingredients, techniques, and how to get the most flavors out of your dishes.

I remember a fairly recent job interview for a craft brew pub that the owner swore he had the best barbecue sauce recipe ever. Everybody loves it, he told me, and nobody better come here thinking it needs changing. I pointed out that there are many cooking techniques in which barbecue sauce might be called for and one sauce will not accommodate all of them. For instance, a smoked chicken will need a different sauce then a grilled chicken breast. I didn’t get the job.

So, instead of memorizing a perfect recipe, you have to be ready to roll with it. You may have to adjust the flavor to suit someone else’s taste. Take French toast. I add a little orange juice to give it a different flavor. Most people cannot even identify this flavor, but they either enjoy it or they do not. Most people enjoy my French toast, but that does not make me a genius. The idea that I understand the technique and I use the right bread makes me a good cook.

Why is understanding technique more important than memorizing a recipe? The answer is: Because recipes are flawed. Any fool can write a recipe; I do it all the time. Have you ever seen a recipe that calls for one clove of garlic? They must be kidding. Even if you don’t particularly like garlic, one is almost never enough. Recipes have to be living things. You have to have the knowledge to look at them and make changes as needed to suit your taste. The mistake many people make is that they believe recipes are written in stone by the almighty himself (Emeril). The ability to “fix” a recipe is the road to true kitchen enlightenment.

If you have any questions or need an idea, please feel free to contact me at RGuyintheKitchen@aol.com.