The Many Gifts of Trisha Yearwood and Country Cookin'

About six months ago, I came across Trisha Yearwood's show on the Food Network.  I must admit, I was a little nervous and very excited.  I mean, how can someone so talented in such an important genre that is music, with no mention all these years of her cooking prowess, be on the Food Network?  I was excited because I love her.  I've been listening to her music since she debuted when I was in high school.  It's part of my insides, my story, my life.  I was nervous because I didn't want her to let me down.

She's a girl with a voice and a guitar.  That's what I love.

But, can she really cook?  Will she help me find inspiration and a little more of my potential in the kitchen?

It turns out, yes, she can.  And she yes, she has.

A few weeks ago, she said two little words that gave me whiplash: Ribbon Meatloaf.

WHAT is ribbon meatloaf?  Why is it a ribbon?

Then, I thought, "It doesn't matter!  It's meatloaf!  I will make this."

As I watched her make it, my mouth was watering, and everything in me was hungering for this dish.  It seemed so basic, so southern, so charming, I couldn't wait.  And when she pulled it out of the oven, it honestly looked like a fully-bloomed flower!  It was so beautiful.  I was almost sad she didn't invite me to dinner.

I set out on a course of action.  I decided to add some more veggies to it for a little extra color and nutrition, so I bought the frozen veggie soup mix.  I added a little cayenne pepper.  And, I'll admit, I cheated a little.  I bought buttermilk biscuits in a can.  I just didn't want to make them from scratch.  I've learned that shortcuts aren't all bad.  What I learned from this particular experience is that homemade biscuits obviously yield more than a can, because I have a ton of the meatloaf stuffing leftover.  That's okay, I'll buy more biscuits and eat more of this!

I turned Pandora on Trisha Yearwood Radio as I began to prepare.  I thought it was only fitting.

Mine was not as pretty as hers.  It was a little weird-looking flower.  However, it was yummy.  As it baked, the whole house began to smell of bread and meat and comfort.  Home became home, if that makes sense.

Ready to assemble.

I couldn't help but wonder about my musical heroes and their other talents.  I mean, they must all be more than the song on the radio.  We are all more than our best gift.  None of us live in a pigeon-hole.  I am more than a writer.  I am more than my job.  I am more than someone who can cook.

Pre-oven

In a time of instant access to everyone and everything, we think we know celebrities on a personal level, when the truth is, like all of us, we only see what they want us to see or what the media portrays.  The truth is always behind closed doors.  As an open society, we are mostly shut and locked from what's real.  It's all perception.  As the food cooked, I pondered these thoughts.  I wish more people would get out and share their other gifts with us.  I am a better person because of music.  I am a better person because of cooking.  And it is wonderful to feel a bond with others in this way.

My weak little ribbon
meatloaf flower.

Trisha Yearwood is giving us a peak into her life outside of who we think she is.  She is granting us access to her southern heritage and upbringing by cooking her life for me and for you.  And that is brave.

Oh the deliciousness!

As the oven timer went off, American Girl, X's and O's was on Pandora.  I couldn't think of a more fitting conclusion to my stream of consciousness.

Dying for Bread

As I've mentioned before, I love The Barefoot Contessa.  Ina Garten is really an inspiration to me.  She has a calm confidence in the kitchen.  Her show brings me so much joy to watch and inspires me to do better, and to do more.  When I need an idea on how to make something, the first thing I always Google is "{fill in the blank food} Barefoot Contessa.

Two weeks ago, some friends were hosting Italian Dinner Night.  My only job was to bring garlic bread.  Seriously.  How easy is that?

When you're me, not so easy.  I have to make things complicated.  Over complicated.  I mean, I cook.  I bake.  I will NOT  just go buy frozen garlic bread and throw it in the microwave.  (Even though the only time I've ever made bread, it imploded and nearly burned the house down...)  I googled, "Garlic Bread Barefoot Contessa.  And came up with this.  Easy enough, right?  Right.

Everything was going swell.  I decided to avoid all the washing of my huge food processor and just used my stick blender to grind down the herbs.  It was working like a charm, until it wasn't.  I put my finger in the chamber to clean it.  I've done this a million times.  Literally, the chamber is so shallow, it is necessary to do this if I'm going to use this device.  However, I'm now rethinking this.  I'm rethinking and considering using a knife or a spoon or ANYTHING other than my finger.  Or perhaps, I should just use a full-size food processor.

All of a sudden.  Within a second.  Everything changed.

There was blood.  Lots and lots of blood.  I mean, LOTS. Of. Blood.

And then the pain came.  My left index finger was so covered in blood, I didn't know if it was even attached anymore.  I was pretty sure it wasn't.  And then it hurt more.  And then I couldn't breathe anymore.  And got dizzy.  I thought for sure that a stick blender was going to be my demise.

I laid on the floor of the kitchen crying, called my parents, and bled out.  No matter how tight the paper towel, it wouldn't clot.  And I'm dying.

I pulled myself up after a while, determined to move forward.  I cannot die from bread.  I cannot die from a stick blender.  I sent out a text and one of my friends volunteered to bring garlic bread to dinner.  Thank god.  I had to shower.

In the end, I have about six cuts on the pad of my finger, three on the top side, and the fingernail is pretty much sliced.  It's super painful, and still healing.

I wasn't hungry when I left the house for dinner.  I was still super nauseous, but I wanted to at least be part of the friendship and fellowship of the evening.  Turns out, that was exactly what the doctor ordered.  I am so fortunate to have friends who are like family, who love me and tease me and care about me no matter what.  My parents were also at the dinner, and that made it all the better.  I ate food - good homemade, real deal Italian food.

The lesson of this day is simply:

All you need is love.

...and a food processor.

Food Network Inspirations and Sloppy Joes

I've become a bit of a Food Network junkie.  It's always on.  Even when I'm not paying attention.
Good Eats.
Chopped.
The Barefoot Contessa.
The Pioneer Woman.
American Diner Revival.
Diners, Drive-Ins, & Dives.
Mystery Diners.
Anything with Rachel Ray...

Anyway...

It's been really rainy and quite cold here lately, very un-summer-y.  Which just kind of perpetuates my crockpot cooking.  Don't get me wrong - I am obsessed with the crockpot!  I love making one meal that costs less than ten bucks and eating for nearly a week.  But it really does get old.  I want to cook.  To make something on the stove.  Something from beginning to dish-washing in one kitchen trip.

And then suddenly, the sun came out.  The rain stopped.  And it got H-O-T hot here!  Finally!  The warmth. The sunlight. Oh, I've missed this.  I got outside and laid by the pool for some color yesterday, and the band played right on the lake last night.  There's no denying it!  Summer has officially taken stage!

A couple days ago, Ree Drummond, affectionately known as The Pioneer Woman, featured a show about cooking outdoor foods indoors.  It really felt like summer everywhere - both on the tele and out the window.  I wasn't really interested in cooking what she made on the show, but it did get me interested in summer-y foods.  I don't always think the point of watching the Food Network or reading blogs like this or losing a few hours on Pinterest is so much to make what I see in front of me, but to kick up my senses and fire my imagination.  Find my own voice.

Meat and peppers

I started thinking yesterday about macaroni salad.  I've never made it.  Then, I started thinking about potato salad - again, never made it.  As I looked at recipes, I realized that, without the basic ingredients, attempting either/or of them would be quite costly.  And it would not make a complete meal.  Well, it might - but not for a few days at a time.  I might die - simply of from eating solely macaroni and/or potato salad so often in succession.

Adding Sauce

But then the idea of sloppy joes popped into my head.  My grandma taught me to make sloppy joe sauce when I was a little girl - before the idea of cooking for myself ever existed.  I grew up in a small town where the grocery store only has six isles and one cash register - and closed at 6pm everyday, and closed on Sundays.  So if it's some random hour and you want something or get a craving for something - you have to make it yourself, with what is in your house.

Homemade sauce

So my grandma taught me to make sloppy joes for that reason (and probably because she doesn't believe in Manwich).  She told me that all you need is ketchup, mustard, and anything else you want to put in it.  Over the years, I've made it with many different ingredients.  Everything from spices to hot sauce, to just pepper.  Make some hamburger meat, chop it up, done.  Bun or bread.  Cheese or no cheese.  It really doesn't mater.

All mixed together!

I started a new housesitting gig yesterday, so I went to the grocery on my way here.  I decided to throw caution to the wind and make it with only what they have available to me in their kitchen.  I bought small bottles of ketchup and mustard, peppers, buns, and cheese.  As I was waiting for the cheese to be sliced, I saw the macaroni and potato salads pre-made in the deli.  I bought some.  I couldn't resist!  Sometimes, pre-made is cheaper than making it yourself.  And just as good.

Today, I put it all together.  Spices from the pantry, ketchup, mustard - and a new experiment - balsamic vinegar and some wassabi sauce!  Delicious!  Put together on some Hawaiian Rolls and cheese, right next to the store bought side salads - it made a perfect lunch.  And will make a perfect dinner.  And a few more meals this week.  I couldn't be happier.

Per

By the way...I used muenster cheese, which is amazing.  And horseradish cheddar.  This. Is. Heaven.

Grandma Pope's Pantry

This is going to be a post of pictures.  Back to words later.

As I mentioned in my previous entry, I was gifted an amazing and old pantry from one of my clients.  She told me it was her grandmother's - Grandma Pope - and it was over 70 years old.  Rusted, discolored, it had certainly seen better days.  She had no use for it.  I was excited to take on the project.  This blog is a timeline in pictures of its restoration, from unloading it at my parents' house to set up and full in my house.

The gift of this pantry has given me new motivation in many ways!  First, I have never done anything DIY other than cooking.  So the idea to enlist my dad and his amazing skills gave me a sense of accomplishment and pride that we worked on it together.  I actually held and used a power tool!  Also, the history and love I can feel from a gift like this inspires me to cook.  I mean, what's the point of having something this amazing if you aren't going to be a cook!?!?  Along with cooking, comes the need to write again.

This is the true definition of the gift that keeps on giving...

Ta-da!!!

Back at it. For a lot of reasons.

I've been cooking.  You wouldn't know it, though.  I've been oddly absent from here, from writing in general.  No excuses.  It's just the truth.
This is bad.  I love to write.  I always have.  I just...I just...I just

...lose it sometimes.  Motivation.  Will.  Drive.  Desire.

It's always in me, though.  I narrate everything in my head, see sentences in everything that happens around me.  I come up with story lines, song lyrics...

..that just don't go anywhere.

As of late, my cooking has also gone the way of the wind.  I've started cooking less for passion, more for necessity.  My pinterest is now full of affordable, dinner-type foods rather than the usual daring, creative, and fun desserts.  I became best friends with a crock pot. (So much so that I have not one but two - yes, TWO - crock pot boards on pinterest!)  While delicious, I haven't really been inspired by beauty and uniqueness of the dishes I was creating.  I took pictures - yes - but they were more for my personal reference than awesomeness and art.

No matter what I am cooking, I still get the fire in my belly and the silly smile that only comes from pulling a knife out of a block or a turning on an oven (or, um, lately, a crock pot).  It felt amazing.  Even if the goals had changed.

...So why am I back?  A few reasons.

12 new likes this week!
And it's only Wednesday!

First and foremost, I belong here.  I belong with words and food and this is exactly that.

Then, out of nowhere, I started getting notifications on Facebook that people are liking my cooking page.  I mean, lots of notifications.  As in, two, sometimes three a day.  Why???  It's not like I've been active on it at all.  And I don't know these people.  How are they finding me???  I started to feel like I owe them something.  These people have found me (again - HOW???), they obviously expect something in return, some kind of food talk.  Some kind of interesting tidbit.  Anything for crying out loud.

It was a weird nudge that maybe I should be saying something.

And finally, I have been helping the nicest woman move into a retirement community.  We hit it off immediately.  She has never married, doesn't have kids, is a fellow Beatle-maniac!  She's everything I want to be in 25 years!

In the process of downsizing, she gifted me a few very amazing items.  She gave me a Post magazine from 1964 - the first interview the Bealtes ever did for an American publication.  Wow. Seriously.  Wow.

Grandma Pope's Pantry

Workin' the sander

She gave me a pantry.  Literally.  This is a 70-plus year old piece that belonged to her grandmother, who passed it on to her, and she has passed it on to me.  It has some rust spots, so my dad is helping me refinish it - sand it down and paint it.  Unfortunately, it has done nothing but RAIN here lately, so we have had to hold off on the painting.  But very soon, I will have a pantry!

Hand-typed over 40 years ago.

Then, she handed me a pile of cookbooks. YAY!  At the bottom of this pile, I came upon a binder.  It is the binder of hand-written, and typed (on a typewriter!) recipes her own mother gave to her when she got her first apartment over 40 years ago.  Recipes from her childhood, that her mother made for her and she has made over and over through the years.  It is hands-down the most sentimental and loving gift one could give.  And she chose to give it to me.

Seven Layer Cookies Cooking

And in a gift box.

I decided to make something from it and take it to her.  I chose a seven layer cookie.  It felt so good to be in the kitchen, baking for fun, not for necessity.  For someone, not for myself.  When she bit into it, she closed her eyes and said, "That tastes just like mama's." with a big smile on her face.

Egg Custard

I also made an egg custard.  When I showed the binder to my parents, my dad made a comment that my grandma used to make that and he loved it.  I don't really like milk - and it was really milky.  He said it was delicious, though.  So I'll take that compliment.

Wow, writing this feels so good.  I'll try to come back more often.  It's where I belong.