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Sunday, June 22, 2008
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Hunza Adventure
Below are some pictures of the recent trip to Hunza. It was an amazing trip with many adventures - I wish we could sit and chitchat for a couple of hours and I would tell you all about it! But as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words! Blessings be upon you!
Sunday, June 8, 2008
A Love Affair to Remember
Hello all. I have been cooking a lot lately (I think I said that in the last entry) and I wanted to share with you a little bit about this on-going love affair. Yes, it has been a consuming and steady passion of mind since I was a little girl. Frankly, I don't understand people who don't like to cook. I respect their decision not to indulge in this so pleasant enterprise but find them, in the words of my British friends - a little dodgy. Sometimes I even like them and we become great friends but, just between you and me, they are still a little strange. Are they just too impatient to take the time to create? Do they have a secret aversion to getting their hands dirty? Was it a childhood phobia that caused them to break in hives when they came within fifty feet of a mixing bowl? Or perhaps their mothers were such good cooks that they never tried to learn and consequently reached adulthood thinking boiling water was a culinary accomplishment.
My first dish (at the age of 4) was scrambled eggs. As the years progressed, I migrated to that 1970s heavier than cast iron, old faithful - the casserole! I learned to make pie crust about the age of 10 or 11 - the first recipe I tried was an oil pastry and it was a dismal failure (yes, I have had my share of those - I just don't take them to parties!) I finally tried a basic betty crocker (good ole Betty!)crust and have used that ever since. As a teenager, I did Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners - my brother Danny still remembers those meals with fondness or so rumor has it.
Now Danny - he's another story. There was the time when I came home from college and arrived to find basically nothing in the house (food wise, that is - there were still a few sticks of furniture lying around). Now there was a family reunion on the calendar for the next day. Heaven forbid one should show up at a Walker/Baker/whatever, whatever, family reunion without GOOD food and PLENTY of it in tow. So I scrounged around and came up with butter, flour, milk and bananas. Well, being the creative and talented cook that I am, I made a banana cream pie. Proceeding to the next day - the six Walkers packed in a car on the way to the family reunion (wouldn't you like to be a fly on that wall) - we stop at Wal-Mart. I leave the pie in the backseat of the car. Having concluded our business at Wal-Mart, we proceed to return to the car. Danny sits down - you guessed it - right in the pie!!!! Cheers, Danny!!!!!!!!!! That was not the only time he sat in something of a similar nature but we will save that story for another time.
Proceeding in the cooking history - the next great milestone was California. Yep, you heard right - the state. Now some of you know this place to be a heathen and godless land. One of my cousins, who shall remain unnamed, even wished it to fall into the sea. Fortunately, she made this statement when I was no longer living there. Be as it may, they do know how to eat. California changed my taste buds and my cooking habits forever. There was a Whole Foods very close to where I lived. As an unripe 23 year old, I would wander in just to look. I didn't buy very much but I sure liked to read the names on the packages. Things like Italian Gorgonzola,
corn tamales (oh, those were heavenly), biscotti, and more pasta than you can shake a stick at. I ate my first Chinese food and my first Indian food during this time in CA. From the first bite, I fell in love with Indian food. The spices were so familiar but used in such different ways - and then cool, soothing yogart to mellow out the spices.
So my premise has always been if I can eat it, I can cook it. Slowly, I began to learn to do things a little differently. Along the way, there was a move back to South Texas - Mex-Tex capital of the world. Throw in a little chili powder and some cheese on top and - voila!!! The best Mexican food in the world.
Currently, I am on a dessert kick. My dessert making had stayed stuck somewhere in the 1950s - pound cakes, boring (but homemade) pies, cobblers, just same old, same old. So now I am scaling new heights. Most lately I have tried a recipe for lemon raisin scones. The next week I changed the recipe and made chocolate chip scones with a hint of orange flavor. And just yesterday, I made a cherry crostata. It tasted great but I call it the ugly baby - loved and worked on but still a little wrinkled. Well, it was supposed to look rustic, ok. Let me know if you want the recipe - I would be glad to pass it along.
My first dish (at the age of 4) was scrambled eggs. As the years progressed, I migrated to that 1970s heavier than cast iron, old faithful - the casserole! I learned to make pie crust about the age of 10 or 11 - the first recipe I tried was an oil pastry and it was a dismal failure (yes, I have had my share of those - I just don't take them to parties!) I finally tried a basic betty crocker (good ole Betty!)crust and have used that ever since. As a teenager, I did Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners - my brother Danny still remembers those meals with fondness or so rumor has it.
Now Danny - he's another story. There was the time when I came home from college and arrived to find basically nothing in the house (food wise, that is - there were still a few sticks of furniture lying around). Now there was a family reunion on the calendar for the next day. Heaven forbid one should show up at a Walker/Baker/whatever, whatever, family reunion without GOOD food and PLENTY of it in tow. So I scrounged around and came up with butter, flour, milk and bananas. Well, being the creative and talented cook that I am, I made a banana cream pie. Proceeding to the next day - the six Walkers packed in a car on the way to the family reunion (wouldn't you like to be a fly on that wall) - we stop at Wal-Mart. I leave the pie in the backseat of the car. Having concluded our business at Wal-Mart, we proceed to return to the car. Danny sits down - you guessed it - right in the pie!!!! Cheers, Danny!!!!!!!!!! That was not the only time he sat in something of a similar nature but we will save that story for another time.
Proceeding in the cooking history - the next great milestone was California. Yep, you heard right - the state. Now some of you know this place to be a heathen and godless land. One of my cousins, who shall remain unnamed, even wished it to fall into the sea. Fortunately, she made this statement when I was no longer living there. Be as it may, they do know how to eat. California changed my taste buds and my cooking habits forever. There was a Whole Foods very close to where I lived. As an unripe 23 year old, I would wander in just to look. I didn't buy very much but I sure liked to read the names on the packages. Things like Italian Gorgonzola,
corn tamales (oh, those were heavenly), biscotti, and more pasta than you can shake a stick at. I ate my first Chinese food and my first Indian food during this time in CA. From the first bite, I fell in love with Indian food. The spices were so familiar but used in such different ways - and then cool, soothing yogart to mellow out the spices.
So my premise has always been if I can eat it, I can cook it. Slowly, I began to learn to do things a little differently. Along the way, there was a move back to South Texas - Mex-Tex capital of the world. Throw in a little chili powder and some cheese on top and - voila!!! The best Mexican food in the world.
Currently, I am on a dessert kick. My dessert making had stayed stuck somewhere in the 1950s - pound cakes, boring (but homemade) pies, cobblers, just same old, same old. So now I am scaling new heights. Most lately I have tried a recipe for lemon raisin scones. The next week I changed the recipe and made chocolate chip scones with a hint of orange flavor. And just yesterday, I made a cherry crostata. It tasted great but I call it the ugly baby - loved and worked on but still a little wrinkled. Well, it was supposed to look rustic, ok. Let me know if you want the recipe - I would be glad to pass it along.
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