My Journey in the Kitchen-Thank you Martha

I never enjoyed cooking when I was younger.  Wait, I take that back, my best friend, Anna and I always made "no bake" chocolate oatmeal cookies (or as we called them, "doo doo" coookies-sounds yummy huh?)  And that was the extent of my cooking skills, we literally made cookies you didn't have to bake.   My mom is a great cook (when she actually takes the time to care about it).  Growing up in a small town in Arkansas, I can remember being the only one I knew in my world that had salads with goat cheese, and cranberries, and almonds in it.  Sure this is the normal salad now, but not 20 years ago in Arkansas.  My mom has always been a great and very healthy cook-she is terrible, and I mean terrible at desserts.   My older sister always had a flare for great cooking.  She helped my mother in the kitchen most every night.  After high school she spent a few months in Europe and the Canary Islands with a missionary team.  The entire time she was in the Canary Islands, her assignment was to help in the kitchen with the cooks.  So, she learned amazing things there, and I remember her coming home and being all the more interested in cooking beautiful dishes that tasted as great as they looked.

So, my job at dinner time in the Swift home was setting the table.  Man, I sure can set one beautiful table!  My mom tried several times to include me in the cooking-however, I ALWAYS burned the garlic bread,  and the one time she called me and asked me to start the baked potatoes in the oven, I burned them as well.   So, I was only asked to fill the ice water glasses, set the table, and light the candles in preparation for our family dinners.  I didn't like cooking, I wasn't interested, and I wasn't good at it.

Then I got married.

I married Luke when I was 22.  He is the love of my life and the man of my dreams, so of course, I wanted to bless him with beautiful dinners.  I remember one of the first meals I cooked for him in our small apartment in Kansas City.  His favorite food is Italian, so I attempted to make a simple Spaghetti.
I opened the jar, poured it into the pot, sprinkled some salt, pepper, and garlic powder, brought it to a boil (I would have simmered it, but I didn't know what that meant at the time) removed it from the heat, and poured it over the overcooked noodles.  We had no table at the time, so we sat on the floor and enjoyed our first pasta dinner in our new home.  He loved it, thankfully, and I thought it was pretty good myself.  I remember that I actually bought a very nice sauce in a jar--it wasn't Ragu, so it turned out somewhat decent.   Now I look back on that and think "gross".  But hey- you gotta start somewhere.  I will never forget that meal-it was precious and we were so happy to be married. So now every time we move (we have moved 5 times since that first apartment) I always make our first meal in our new home Spaghetti.  Thank God, my recipe these days is much better-and it doesn't come from a jar.

So, how did I get interested in becoming a good cook?  Honestly, I loved Luke, and I wanted to cook great dinners for him.  He was my first inspiration.  My second inspiration- Martha Stewart.  I know that sounds so cliche, but it is the truth.  I began watching The Martha Stewart show (before she went to prison and had her home shows-not her talk shows with an audience) most days at 2pm.  She would have a craft segment, a gardening segment, and a cooking segment.  I was totally inspired by her.  And slowly but surely, every dish she prepared, I would think, "I can do that."  That dish would become our dinner that night.  I had some major flops, but most of the dishes I would copy from Martha, I was able to pull off fairly decent.  Each night I would place my beautiful dish on the table in front of Luke, I was so excited, so proud of myself, and totally inspired to keep on impressing Luke with my skills!  In learning how to cook, there were also hundreds of calls to my mother and sister....hundreds.  My journey through recipes and cook books began, I subscribed to the Martha Stewart Living,  and began reading and believing I could do anything if I just tried.

Cooking has become a moment of creativity and clarity in my busy days.  As dramatic as it sounds, it helps center me at the end of the day.  I have learned to make it a moment of peace in my crazy days as a wife and mother.  I know that seems impossible when you are a mom, but in the next few blogs, I will share some of my secrets that will hopefully make you fall in love with cooking!

      My most recent monthly issue of Martha Stewart Living to add to my collection.