So I'm not Julia Child

Halloween weekend all the girls came home and we had our Hallow-giving. I was so excited to have my family home, but I got a little stressed out about what food to have in the house for them and what I would cook for the big meal especially since Mandi & Beckie are vegetarians. The thing is I am not a great cook and I don’t know why because I love to eat!

I come from a background of excellent cooks – my mom and at least two of her sisters are amazing cooks. My dad’s mother was a wonderful cook. My cousins, the Fearsome Four (I am one of the 4) are all GREAT cooks and at least one of them is a “Foodie.” My younger sister loves to cook and experiment with new recipes. They are all such great cooks that I have major insecurities about cooking for them. When people visit, we go out to eat a lot.

For me, cooking is a chore. I don’t love it. Don’t get me wrong – I can cook and Ron and the girls didn’t starve. I am ok doing the basics – I’ve just never gotten a thrill out of cooking. Planning meals, shopping for groceries, cooking and cleaning – you can have it! I have to say that I am very lucky to have married a man whose mother wasn’t much of a cook herself. The first time I made mashed potatoes for Ron, he looked at me as though I was a genius! Personally, I didn’t know that you could make mashed potatoes from a box. I can at least thank mom-in-law for that. Well, that and teaching me how to make sausage gravy and biscuits – it’s one of the few things she does well and it’s now one of my specialties! It's Baby Hurricane's favorite!

So even though I’m no Julia Child, when all was said and done and cooked and eaten, I did a respectable job preparing our Hallow-giving feast. We had turkey seasoned with rosemary, sage and lemon, spinach tortellini with olive oil, asparagus, sun dried tomatoes, Spanish olives and parmesan, green beans, sweet potatoes, roasted red potatoes seasoned with Italian herbs and more parmesan. Everything was made from scratch except for the dinner rolls and pies. Everyone ate well and seemed to be happy with the meal. Not too bad for a non-gourmet, non-foodie type of person!

And believe it or not, I actually had a good time preparing it! Go figure!