Cuisinière

Cooking is like love.  It should be entered into with abandon or not at all.  ~Harriet van Horne

I adore cooking. 

There is something so poetic about taking raw ingredients and transforming them into something beautiful and tasty...

...taking things that, while they are interesting and delightful on their own, become a symphony when they are combined to compose a cantata on the palate. 

Every since I was a little girl, I have been at home with a wooden spoon and sauté pan in my hand. 

When the other little children were watching Sesame Street and Clifford the Big Red Dog, I was immersing myself into the world of Julia Child, Jacques Pepin, and Caprial Pence.

These white-coated people were my inspiration...the first exposure my innocent eyes ever had to the world of culinary beauty. 

Even now, my bucket list is peppered with dreams of meeting, cooking, and conversing with my childhood idols...from Paula Deen to Emeril Lagassee to my all-time culinary hero, Chef Gordon Ramsey. 

There is magic in the kitchen...found on each oven rack, cooling on stove tops, and simmering in saucepans. 

There is comfort found in a butter and flour roux, waiting to be blended with melted cheese and spices to create my homemade macaroni and cheese...

There is spice and pizzazz wrapped up in each bite of a beautifully prepared pad Thai or the sweet burn of a green Indian curry.

There is pleasure found in the golden brown of a perfect pie crust, perfectly mounded with freshly cut peaches in their own sugar and cinnamon-hinted syrup...

There is blissful perfection within each bite of a chocolate-frosted cupcake, the frosting coating your lips and tongue.

And there is pride when you realize that every last crumb, every bite, every drop came straight from your own wooden spoon and mixing bowl. 

Each ingredient is a gift from Heaven. Each recipe is penned with love and expertise. 

I will never cease to love the magic that is food...

...and the wonder that is culinary creativity.

This is my bliss...

...the bliss of cooking. 

The colors of a fresh garden salad are so extraordinary, no painter's pallet can duplicate nature's artistry.  ~Dr. Sun Wolf