Food/Recipes

Everyone has to eat, even writers locked away in their garret, attic, loft, office. Some writers cook for husbands, wives, kids or families, too. On those days when a writer is in the middle of the white heat of a good writing session cooking is the last thing on their mind.

Often, the idea of planning (the part of the job that haunts me), preparing, and cleaning up a meal is the most dreaded part of the day. Yet…Strangely, last summer when I was sickest—flat on the couch, barely able to get to the bathroom, all I thought about was cooking. It haunted my sleep, nagged at my days.

The most I could do was lie on the couch and watch Rachael Ray. Her no-nonsense way of cooking, the sound of chopping, sizzling grabbed me. I dreamed of chopping vegetables, putting together meals. The dreams, the thoughts, the cooking shows soothed me in the strangest, most elemental way. It almost felt like healing. And as I got better and could string more than two thoughts together, I got hooked on Cooking Mama on my DS. It was the best I could do for the time being.

Married for thirty-eight years, I’ve done the majority of the cooking, other than grilling. My husband can cope with just about anything, but in all the years we'd been married he rarely cooked other than breakfast, or while camping. While I was sick, though, he was stuck with it. It was the strangest, worst, funniest couple of weeks, watching him struggle. All those years, secretly wishing for a hand in the kitchen and—I hated that he had to do it. Hated him in my kitchen, using my stove, my tools. I could hardly wait to pushing him out and just do what I usually did.

Hey, I’ve always loved to cook. As a girl I watched Julia Child and the Galloping Gourmet religiously and imagined myself as someone like that. Yeah, right. Anyway I've cooked for a family of five since I was in the sixth grade, but even with that, there have been days I longed for someone else to do that daily job. It seemed that that longing turned around and bit me in the stretch pants last year.

I would say it was a case of being careful what you wish for—you just might get it.

Over the years I’ve collected some tricks and recipes that help with the daily grind of planning and executing meals. I have been lucky, too, because I’ve had a lot of friends and family with great recipes and talent, with tricks to make good meals fast and easily.

Here, I include a recipe I got when I was in seventh grade cooking class. At the time, Utah Power and Light Company went around to the schools and demonstrated a meal for the girls in cooking class. The two things I remember was this meal and the white aprons, trimmed in blue gingham we had to wear, embroidered names on the right shoulder and all.

The meal: Beef Stroganoff, green beans, herb rolls and peanut cookies with kisses

Beef Stroganoff

¼ cup butter
¼ cup chopped onion
1 minced garlic clove
1 lb. hamburger
1 6oz can mushrooms
3 Tbles. lemon juice
1 can consommé
1 teas. salt
¼ teas pepper
2 cups wide egg noodles
1 cup sour cream

Sauté onion, garlic until golden. Add meat, cooking and stirring until red color disappears. Stir in mushrooms, lemon juice, consommé. Add salt and pepper, then simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in noodles and cook covered for 10 or 12 minutes. Mix in sour cream. Garnish with parsley.
I still serve this with green beans. Also because I am on a salt restricted diet I don’t add the teaspoon of salt, then those who want can add salt to their serving. Serves 5.

This was the first meal my husband fixed while I was recuperating and managed great. It’s simple and quick.