{"id":6748,"date":"2010-03-26T04:00:56","date_gmt":"2010-03-26T08:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/?p=6748"},"modified":"2021-12-27T02:30:23","modified_gmt":"2021-12-27T07:30:23","slug":"cooking-with-love-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/?p=6748","title":{"rendered":"Cooking with Love (Again)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"maplesausageweb\"<\/p>\n

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The secret of good cooking is to cook with love\u2014or so my mother taught me when I was a little girl. We should love the creative act of cooking. We should love and respect the ingredients we use. And we should love those for whom we cook.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Most of the time all this love comes naturally to me. If I didn\u2019t find the act of cooking fulfilling, I wouldn\u2019t be a food writer. I enjoy watching different foods ebb and flow in farm stands and grocery stores as the seasons shift. And I get great satisfaction from cooking for, and eating with, my family and friends. Food is part of our communal life.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Last week, however, was NOT my most loving time in the kitchen. We\u2019ve all had so-called bad hair days. I had a bad food week.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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It took me a while to realize what the problem was. All I knew was that just about everything I made (including recipes I was testing for publication) turned out somewhere between barely adequate and (shudder!) pretty awful. Usually, the range is from tasty to fabulous.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Friday afternoon I suddenly observed that the joy had gone out of my kitchen. I was viewing cooking as a task instead of a pleasure.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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The problem wasn\u2019t with cooking, of course. It was with me. I think my frazzled state might have been induced in part by the time of year. We have more sunshine now than we did in February\u2014and the air is definitely warmer. Nevertheless, spring hasn\u2019t quite hit the ground running yet. And summer seems a long way off.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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To tackle the problem I turned off the stove and the computer and made myself a list. (I love lists!) The list was a bit of a hodgepodge because it had a dual purpose: to make me feel better in general and to\u00a0help me return to work and cooking with a more cheerful and loving heart.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Here is my list. Obviously, this list won\u2019t work for everyone. It might inspire others, however.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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\"Truffleweb\"<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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1. Take the dog (or the child or the cat or the ferret or whatever you have) for a long walk. Even on rainy days at this time of year one can smell spring in the air! And it\u2019s good to get the body exercising as well as the brain.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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2. Do something to cheer up someone else. When I got back from the walk I took my mother for a drive (she\u2019s not in shape yet to go walking with Truffle and me). Making her happy made me happier.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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3. Listen to–or better yet make!–some music. It\u2019s the food of love, so it\u2019s bound to help restore the love of food.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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4. Buy hair dye. (I told you the list was idiosyncratic.) When I was 26 I suddenly noticed a gray patch in my bangs, a patch that has only gotten larger and more obvious with the passage of time. The woman who cuts my hair may say it\u2019s distinguished to have a highlight in the front of my\u00a0hairdo as much as she likes. We all know \u201cdistinguished\u201d is a code word for \u201cold.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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5. Simplify tasks. I knew I had to return to the kitchen. So I vowed that my next few recipes would be easy ones that took advantage of ingredients I already had in the house or could get very easily. Making cooking easy was the first step toward making it a joyful and loving experience again.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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I may not be ready to make a souffl\u00e9 or a cassoulet at this point, but I\u2019m back to cooking with enthusiasm and making meals that I and others can enjoy. Here is one of the simple recipes that helped me get there.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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It\u2019s perfect for this time of year since we\u2019re still in maple month\u2026\u2026 Remember, spring is a time of renewal!<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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\"bacononions\"<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Maple Candied Sausage<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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This three-ingredient appetizer recipe comes from a delightful cookbook titled Fry Bacon. Add Onions: The Valentine Family & Friends Cookbook<\/a><\/em>. A new edition of this book by Kathleen Valentine of Gloucester has just been published by the Parlez-Moi Press.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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I enjoy the way Kathleen weaves reminiscences, photos of family and friends, and recipes into an attractive volume that shares her family\u2019s life and many of its loves. She comes of Pennsylvania Dutch stock so the book features many of my favorite sweet-and-sour combinations.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Tammy Hicks of Charlemont, Massachusetts,\u00a0gave me a similar recipe<\/a> last year using grape jelly and barbecue sauce. Sweet and saucy, both recipes make excellent\u00a0finger food (toothpick food, actually)\u00a0for large parties. <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Kathleen\u2019s original recipe calls for 3 to 4 pounds of sausage, 1 cup brown sugar, and 1\/2 cup maple syrup. I was serving fewer people so I reduced her proportions.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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I know there are those of you out there who will find this overly sweet\u2014but kids and old folks love it! Serve it with a little sauerkraut to offset the sugar. Because of the many health benefits of sauerkraut<\/a>, it makes for a great side dish. <\/span>(Kathleen’s book offers a number of recipes from which you can choose.)<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Ingredients:<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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1 pound smoked sausage, cut into 1\/2-inch pieces
\n1\/3 cup brown sugar
\n2-1\/2 tablespoons maple syrup<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Instructions:<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Brown the sausage pieces lightly in a frying pan. Transfer them to a 1-1\/2 quart saucepan, and stir in the brown sugar and maple syrup. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly; then reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 1 hour, stirring from time to time. Serves 8 as an appetizer.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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\"maplesausage<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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\u00a0 The secret of good cooking is to cook with love\u2014or so my mother taught me when I was a little girl. We should love the creative act of cooking. We should love and respect the ingredients we use. And we should love those for whom we cook. \u00a0 Most of the time all this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3,20,22],"tags":[1117,1119,1118,259,1116],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6748"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6748"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12870,"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6748\/revisions\/12870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}