Passionate Cooking

I have been in the kitchen most of my life. My earliest memory was when I was about three years old when my parents and I lived in Hampton, VA. I helped my dark haired, slender mom make Christmas cookies, most notably, thimble cookies with jam. Mom would let me take a clean thimble and make little indentations in the small cookies to fill with fruit jam. Another favorite memory was ‘washing’ dishes with her after the dinner meal. I loved playing in the dish water.

Another memory was helping Mom or Dad make basic foods, such as heating canned soup on the stove top, making toast, and Dad's sandwiches with sliced cheddar cheese, lunch meat, Hellman's mayonnaise, and either ground mustard or Grey Poupon. I eventually graduated to following recipes either from Mom’s metal recipe box or from a kids’ cookbook that my parents got for me from Weekly Reader. One of my favorite, light dinner meals out of that cookbook was polka dot soup and sesame seed bread sticks from a can of biscuits. The soup was simple--canned tomato soup with sliced hot dogs and Parmesan cheese, but it was tasty. I felt special making that with Mom’s help!

Once my parents trusted me with the stove, they let me have free range of the kitchen. I loved finding cookie recipes in Mom’s metal recipe box and making them. One of my favorite recipes is Grandmother Ruth’s butterscotch cookie recipe; however, no butterscotch chips are used! It is the brown sugar that makes this cookie so delicious. The recipe is over 80 years old. I have made it many times, mostly for Christmas.

Cooking at home was a family love language in a healthy way. The word ‘diet’ did not exist in our household, and the general rule Mom had for me was if I was too full from dinner then I was too full for dessert. Goodies, treats, and special family meals were done with love. Each one of us had our specialty recipes. Dad made buttery, addicting, soft caramels for Christmas, and he showed me how. I have yet to make these caramels successfully on my own. Dad made breakfast style meals with eggs per request (I loved his over-easy eggs), toast, bacon or sausage. His specialty was making light, fluffy waffles with just the right amount of crispness! They were perfect with margarine and real maple syrup! Another cooking talent he had was making a pepper seasoned, oven roasted, stuffed turkey for Thanksgiving. His stuffing had just the right texture with chopped up turkey meat and giblets, onion, and celery; it never was dry. He had a knack for grilling steaks or chicken wings with homemade teriyaki sauce over the charcoal grill. Mom showed me how to make the homemade teriyaki sauce (Filipino recipe), and I have shared making this with friends.

Mom made wonderful desserts, especially cakes! Her homemade frostings were the best whether it be a buttery, caramel fudge-like frosting on sheet cake or a fluffy, marshmallow frosting on a round layer cake! She also made refreshing salads of all kinds and hearty soups, such as vegetable soup and chili! She said 'I love you' by saying, "You must eat!" It was done in a loving, joking way.

As a result, I developed a passion for cooking for people and sharing food experiences! My heart smiles when I can fix a wonderful meal for my love ones and friends. I love having people over to share a meal or taking something special to a potluck.

One of my favorite memories in recent years was making a huge meal for a few friends in my tiny kitchen with very limited counter space in my small apartment. I invited my then boyfriend and three friends to eat a Filipino-style cuisine with me. My table and chairs only accommodated two people, but we also sat on the couch and used a spare chair. I got up early that morning to prepare everything. The crock pot was next to the microwave on one counter, and I had a small space on the other counter to cut up ingredients to make the rest of the meal. There was adobo chicken in the crock pot, Filipino style rice noodle soup with shrimp, and shrimp fried rice. The meal was such a joy to fix and enjoyed by all.

I love when I can fix food for a family in a time of need. In December 2011, I was diagnosed with a mini stroke, and my right side, especially my hand, was affected. I was fortunate to have a minimal effect, but I needed to heal and strengthen my hand. I found out that my friend’s dad needed a prosthetic for his leg/foot. The family needed to raise money via a fundraiser to purchase one. In an effort to heal from a mini stroke and help my friend, I baked an assortment of quick breads from my beloved Dutch cookbook and donated them. All that baking strengthened my hand, and I needed very little physical therapy as a result. Between the goods I donated for the bake sale and a spaghetti dinner fundraiser, my friends were able to raise enough money for his dad’s prosthetic.

Several years later, in spring of 2017, I decided I wanted to cook at home more and signed up to get a recipe plan with the ingredients. The plan called for little waste of ingredients since everything was appropriately measured for the recipe. The plan allowed for meal planning and groceries in one task, and it is Hello Fresh. I had so much fun cooking their recipes that I decided to share pictures of my meals and mini clips of preparing them on my private IG page where I have a small following of family and friends. I wanted to share my love for cooking with my love ones and eventually do cooking demonstrations, similar to Julia Child. Interestingly enough, I did not watch hardly any cooking shows when I was younger. I still don’t watch cooking shows except for one by Danny Wood of New Kids on the Block.

Over time, I graduated from sharing food pics and short video clips to doing Facebook lives. These picked up more when I moved to my new home that has a slightly bigger kitchen. I demonstrated Hello Fresh recipes from start to finish. During my lives, I chatted with whoever popped on, caught up with family and friends as they commented, and shared how to make the recipe. This was a sporadic at first, and I got support from family and friends. One friend was inspired to do his own cooking clips on his Facebook page.

Prior to the pandemic, I visited my friends, who are now in Hampton, VA, and spend Labor Day weekend with them in 2019. I brought the beloved family recipes for fried rice and teriyaki chicken wings with me and showed my friends how to make them. I also showed the kids how to make strawberry shortcakes from Bisquick. That meal and dessert became their family favorites, and they have made the meals frequently since then.

When the pandemic hit the US in spring 2020, I decided to go live regularly to make sure my love ones were okay. I shared more personal stories and read an inspirational passages to keep everyone’s spirits up. I began to also share recipes I found online and my favorite recipes. I have learned over time to create something on the spot with no particular recipe in mind. I just let my experience guide me. It is always fun to see how those turn out!

At one point during the pandemic, I wanted to learn how to make a good jam but without the fuss of preparing Mason jars and the need for pectin. I found the perfect recipe for freezer jam online. It was a strawberry recipe, but I took the basic recipe and made it my own. Last summer, I used different fruits and swapped out the citrus juices. I made several batches, sold some, and froze the rest. I even shared with a friend how to make this jam via video call. My friends have given such positive responses to these jams. I came up with some unique fruit pairings: Basil Blueberry Mango; Blueberry Orange Sugar Plum; Peach Watermelon Blueberry; and Pepper Mango Peach to name a few. After using this recipe, I will not go back to store bought jam.

I have a whole series of videos on my personal Facebook account. People have asked why don’t I turn my passion of food into a business. I have never attended a culinary school. I took one cake decorating class and didn’t like it. All of my cooking skills have come from personal experiences and learning from family. I prefer a loving touch compared to a professional chef approach.

Since we are now headed to a path of normalcy, I would love to offer personalized cooking classes to individuals or small groups of people. This could be done either through zoom or in person. If I did via zoom, then I would do these classes from the comfort of my own kitchen. If in person, I would love to have a dream space of an office with a kitchen classroom in the back to host these classes. They would be tailored to the needs of the learners. There would be a generous kitchen area and a comfortable, inviting, modern eating space to enjoy the food creations on the spot!

It is my hope to share the joy I experience with cooking with others. Food and cooking should be joyful and pleasurable. That is what I want to bring to these classes. My favorite prayer before an evening meal came from my then mother-in-law. “Thank you, God, for this meal and let it nourish our souls and spirits. Amen.” So simple, but that is what I want people to experience and feel when they learn how to cook a loving meal for themselves and others.