When I was just 7 years old my parents began to teach me to cook. Little stuff like how daddy makes donuts out of pillsbury canned biscuits and momma's secret to her chicken and dumplings (still my second all time favorite food). I was hooked. By the time I reached junior high my brothers formed a protest.. "Please, if you love us, no more peanut butter cookies!" To this day, none of them will eat peanut butter and that is why. I guess I got a little cookie crazy. Apparently there CAN be too much of a good thing.
By high school I was making apple pies for the neighbors, demanding their opinion.. Is streusel better, or a lattice topping? While being home-schooled, I took a cooking class from my dad where he graded things such as biscuits and gravy. Daddy? You just fueled the fire.
They also had me grocery shop, where my parents forced a great deal out of every penny.. I learned a lot of things I've kept with me always and some things I put my own spin on. Eating well has little to do with how much you spend, it's about the effort and love you put in a meal.
When I got married at just 17, I had a problem. I had been so used to cooking for 6+ people every day that I didn't know how to cook for two. Our poor mini fridge held no leftovers so God bless Uncle Larry for hauling his gift of a real fridge up 52 stairs and charging me only a pot of coffee and a fried chicken dinner. To this day, I cook in large quantities. It makes no sense to make a mess for a small portion over and over. Make one mess, freeze the rest. It doesn't matter if you don't have a chest freezer. For years I had a side by side freezer and shopped just once a month. A chest freezer is a fantastic investment, though, I will admit.
By age 21, I had become obsessed with cooking and gardening. I learned to can jam, to make my own biscuit mix, to create a sourdough starter. I also starting challenging myself at grocery shopping, becoming a coupon queen and a rebate nut. I collected cookbooks and cut recipes out of every magazine possible. I began once a month grocery shopping that year and have never looked back.
At age 25 I had my fifteen minutes of fame moment when the Lexington Herald Leader decided to do a two page article on me in their food section. They hung out at my house, watching me cut coupons and plan meals. They followed me around the grocery store with a camera man and reporter. They even printed a few of my recipes. I was dubbed the Kentucky Grocery Queen, a name that has stuck for nearly 10 years now.
Over the years I've used my love for cooking to make money.. From catering dinners, to running a company where I delivered hot lunches to local businesses, from being personal chef to working in the Kroger bakery. I've been a prep cook, a baker, a pastry chef, a line cook, and more.
Now? Well now I'm going to follow a long time dream. It's not my biggest dream, but it's still a big one. I'm going to take all the little catering jobs I've done and create one catering company. I'm not going to waste any more time wishing, wondering, and wanting. I'm going to do what I do best.
So much of our lives center around food. Think of every party, every family gathering, every celebration around the world and you are almost guaranteed to find part of the focus to be about food. Whether we are loving our dessert, hating our diets, debating on the best fried chicken recipe, or catering a BBQ for 70+ teens like I did last Sunday... It's all about food and the unadulterated pleasure it brings. This dream of mine? Ain't nothing but a food thang baby ;)
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