Confessions of a Foodie Mama

It’s no secret that I love food. I love all things about food and enjoy nothing more than visiting markets and grocery stores in all the cities I visit. I care deeply about food – how it’s grown, prepared, served, shared. Food is love.

I’m no fancy foodie. I simply appreciate good food. Real food. Real good food. I am a simple home cook, not a frou frou trained chef. I use fresh ingredients. I make home cooked meals. I experiment. I don’t know much about technique and proper names. I have no cooking classes on my resume and have never even taken a home economics class. I’m just a mom who cooks. I thought it’s time I share some of my food confessions.

I get grossed out by the ends of sausages and hot dogs where the links are tied off. I don’t eat those bits.

There are five foods I absolutely will not eat. Liver. Lima beans. Cherries. Black licorice. Raisins.

I have eaten blood sausage. I liked it until I knew what it was.

I once devoured a plate of beef tongue, thinking it was corned beef.

I can’t give up bacon.

Sometimes I cheat and used crushed garlic and ginger in a jar.

I once went years without any table salt in my house.

I am addicted to Kerry Gold butter.

There is always at least one frozen pizza in my freezer.

I make sloppy joes, chili, and spaghetti sauce with soy crumbles instead of ground beef.

I hate cereal.

I love aprons and cocktail napkins.

We use cloth napkins at the table.

I grind my pepper and my coffee beans.

I cannot grow cilantro or sage to save my life.

Grilled cheese and tomato soup is one of my favorite meals.

I have a serious aversion to deli meat.

I love stinky cheese.

I think goopy nachos and a cold beer qualify as dinner.

Almost everything tastes better roasted.

I have yet to make the perfect sugar cookie.

I read cookbooks like they’re novels.

I’ve only baked cake from scratch twice in my life. Both in the last five months.

You’ll find lots of frozen vegetables in my freezer but none in a can.

I  don’t own a Kitchen Aid mixer, springform pan, anything silpat, or proper cookie sheet.

I suck at making pie crust so I just buy the frozen kind.

I’m not a fan of Rachael, Emeril, Paula, or Ina.

I have imitation vanilla extract in my pantry. I bought it by accident but didn’t throw it away.

I have never cooked with a real vanilla bean.

I’m scared to shuck an oyster.

My knives are painfully dull.

Some of my kitchen equipment is from the year I graduated college and moved into my own apartment. In 1991.

I love eating out.

I could eat sushi everyday.

Mac Daddy taught me how to use chopsticks when I was 30.

I liked foie gras until I saw this.

I love tofu but hate tofurkey and other such fake food.

Mint chocolate chip ice cream makes me retch.

I don’t like most breakfast foods.

Once in a blue moon I let Bird and Deal buy school lunch.

My mantra:

A clean apron is the sign of someone who makes reservations, not dinner.