CONCOCTION - kən kŏk shən
Any foodstuff made by combining different ingredients
"he volunteered to taste her latest concoction"
An occurrence of an unusual mixture .
I started this blog to share some of the foods that I create. My husband suggested the "Concoctions" title because that's how I roll in the kitchen. I've never been one to follow recipes except when baking. I get inspiration from recipes, but I almost never follow to a tee. I prefer to cook to taste with the triple-s of salt, sweetener and seasonings. Often the things I come up with are quite unorthodox ... that's part of the fun!!
I've always been a good baker since before I can remember. Perhaps because that was my grandfather's profession and there was never a cake mix in our house! Indeed I found it quite strange that there was any way too bake other than "from scratch". But Mom's not a fancy cook and perhaps that's why I was never inspired to do much. The first concoctions I remember making were in high school. As an athlete with practices/games/meets often scheduled during normal dinner time, I cooked for myself many evenings. Mom would freeze me baggies of rice, chicken pieces and things like that. In the pre-microwave days I would often take the stuff out to thaw in the morning, or I would do a quick thaw in a steamer. I made "Chinese fried rice" my style. It never tasted like the real deal, but it was good to me. I just never thought anyone else would enjoy what I ate, so I never made any of these for other people.
Fast foward a few years and as a young single living alone, I just cooked for myself. When I got my first job, a group of us co-workers started a dinner night get together. Every week or so we would have dinner at one person's place who would provide the main course. Others would bring a desert, appetizer or booze and such. When my turn came to host I was in a state of panic! What the heck am I going to make??!! My friend had to come to my rescue and helped me make sausage and apple stuffed pork chops. They were a hit. The next time I tried my hand at chicken cordon bleu, and it too was a hit. I began to realize I at least had a little knack at this cooking thing....
I began hosting Thanksgiving dinner for my family, a tradition that has continued through my marriage. In doing so, I had collected a few safe "signature dishes" but had yet to branch out experimenting much. Fast forward to several years into marriage, I discovered The Food Network! I often have this channel on in the background as I'm blogging, working or cleaning and I've learned so much from the network. Celebrity and schtick aside, there's something almost every host has taught me, but Alton Brown has to be my favorite. I've also learned and been inspired by all these competitions like Next FN Star and Top Chef, though less so of late because of the focus on personalities over food.
My burgeoning love of cooking is helped along by the fact that my husband also loves to cook and cooking is a big part of our "together time" these days. My husband is of Ukrainian decent, and since we got together I learned how to make certain dishes from his culture. You can look forward to these during certain times of year. Most of it I taught myself based on a Ukrainian cookbook and you know you've done something right when Ukies compliment the result! This success in the kitchen inspired me to branch out. Lately I've been spending a lot of time in the Asian market experimenting with all the unique products available there.
So, with that intro to my background what kind of content should you expect here? For starters, my recipes will be very informal with only rough measurements. As such, there will be no calorie, fat or carb counts provided. I will have labels for a few eating styles so, for instance, if any low carbers are about they can find those recipes that are LC friendly. A word of warning: I'm not puritanical about my ingredients. As much as I'd love to always get the antibiotic free, grassfed (well not, don't like the taste), organic, etc.etc., it's just not something I stress over too much. I also use some shortcut ingredients at times like spice mixes, grated cheese, good old Hellmann's mayo, and store brand instant mashed potato flakes. I even, gasp!, have been known for the occasional spritz of canola oil! I've never fried in coconut oil and I never will. One thing I do try to avoid these days is wheat flour - except for in my baking. My general philosophy these days? If it's made at home from generally wholesome ingredients, it's all good.
I do hope you'll enjoy some of the recipes I share!
