Look, I'm Just The Cook

Welcome to "I'm Just The Cook". This site will be dedicated to cooking and those moments when my mind snaps and takes a disjointed detour.

Like many of you, I'm not a chef - just a cook. The cooks I know are not the ones who are in the kitchen everyday creating new recipes, but they are there cooking the food they know, the food that makes them happy and the food that can make grandma's spirit materialize right there next to the stove.

I lost count of the times I've thought of going to culinary school - but then I think about the stressed out chefs I've known. Mostly I think of one guy who worked at a hotel, I think it was a large Holiday Inn in Green Bay, Wisconsin. He stormed around the kitchen, smoking, drinking coffee and yelling. He seemed to do it all "chain style". Smoke after smoke, cub after cup of coffee and in a constant state of "the sky is falling"! Needless to say, that kind of turned me off.

I'm thinking if I became a chef, I will no longer love to cook and I did not want to jeopardize my joy of making good food for my friends and family. Of course this all makes me think once again of going to school and making that career change - just add that to the other countless times I've had that thought. This is not the kind of career change one takes on at the age of 48, is it?

I like many of you who have re-discovered Julia Child undoubtedly added to this year's Christmas list a copy of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking". I can't wait to get it and yet I'm thinking, "What if the only thing this book tells me is that I'm an awful cook"? Well, I still can't wait to get it. I also asked for her book about her time in France, sounds like a great read.

Okay, this little bit is enough for now - more later and in the mean time, keep cooking!