cooking family

See, I have plans for this blog. I love what I’ve started, and now its going to get bigger. For some time now I’ve been toying with an idea.

I love cooking. And, if you knew me when, you’re mouth might’ve just dropped. Creating a hole in the floor. Especially if you were my cooking partner in 7th grade Home Ec. Right Nikki and Mel? Because back then, Stir Fry was difficult for us. And a cream sauce. Oh. The cream sauce. That’s when I realized there’s a difference between 2 cups of salt and 2 tablespoons. Home Ec didn’t go well for me.

And in college, well, thankfully, the sorority houses at SMU include cooks. Several. Oh, how I loved Dorothy and Effie. So, yeah, I didn’t learn to cook in college. Unless you count the spiral pasta with ranch dressing Kris taught me to make in our kitchen on South Padre Island over Spring Break. That was about all we ate. The whole time. Could be because we were barfing up McD’s fries. You’ve been there, right?

But I digress. See. I became a mom. A mom who desperately wanted to cook healthy and creatively for her children. So, I subscribed to a few menu lists and started to learn. And in the past 5 years I’ve placed desperate phone calls to my mom asking where to find rice vinegar in the grocery store. Another time I called my college roommate and asked if I could substitute parsley for cilantro because WTH is cilantro? Yeah, that would have been a terrible salsa, right?

So, why start a cooking column? Because in 5 years I’ve learned more than the fact that cilantro is a necessity in salsa. I’ve learned to substitute, estimate and create. I’ve learned how to plan meals for a week. And I’ve learned how to create meals my kids will eat, some. I’m not using any fancy tactics a la Jessica Seinfeld or The Sneaky Chef.  My kids eat the meals I make them because, 5 years ago, and even today, there was, is, no choice. If its on your plate, you eat it. Period. And then you tell me if you like it.

That’s right. We (We? Who’s We?) I make one meal per night. That’s it. You eat it. Or you wait ‘til breakfast.

Okay, so the plan. Start looking for my new Just Precious Is Cookin’ posts. There will be several each week. Some will address organization. Others will talk about products and foods. But, mostly, they’ll feature recipes I’m using and how my kids, my husband and I like them. And how easy or hard it was to cook them.

Enjoy!

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