Why am I doing this?

Why?

 

I am a good home cook. The reason I am a good home cook is because I like to eat good food. I have been a fascinated student of cooking (and eating for that matter) since I was about 12. As a child of the 70’s my cooking life began by making such gourmet delicacies as Chef Boyaredee Complete Spaghetti Dinner with Meat Sauce. It was a box that contained noodles, a can of some kind of meat sauce and a pack of cheese. This was real cooking baby!  You had to boil the noodles, open the can and warm up the sauce. It was then lovingly put on a plate and topped with that yummy cheese stuff!!

My baking experience was similarly started with the Easy Bake Oven and those little individual boxes of mix that contained who knows what? They were magically baked with a light bulb. We thought those cakes were just awesome because we made them ourselves!

That's how it all began and I have been hooked ever since.

 

This website was created because people were always asking me how to do something in the kitchen.This way I can show them with pictures and everything!

I am always truly shocked and sad when I hear that someone doesn’t know how to cook. When I ask, it’s usually because their mother didn’t cook. Although my mother did cook, she was an average cook. She didn’t love to cook, but she did have a decent repertoire of recipes and we ate well. My mother was a product of growing up in communist Czechoslovakia and escaping as a new mother at the beginning of WWII.  Food was about "filling the hole" and there was nothing passionate about it.

Now that I look back some of my most memorable moments with her were around the kitchen cooking.

The first person that actually dazzled me as a great cook was Kim’s mother. My childhood best friend Kim lived around the corner in fact our backyards faced each other. I spent all day at Kim’s house. I would wake up and hop the fence and stay there until the street lights came on. Kim’s Mom was the best cook I knew.  She could make everything from scratch with ease. She came to Canada from Croatia and not only was she the best cook, she had a perfectly kept house and was the ultimate entertainer. Kim was an only child so her parents liked that she had someone to play with and I certainly didn't suffer from being at their house. My parents always had their own business and worked long hours. I think Kim’s parents felt it was a terrible crime that I was left alone to grow up wild. Maybe they thought it was their good deed in life to feed me and teach me some manners?  Bless them!!!

 Mrs. Glavanovic was a force to be reckoned with. She was the first hard core Martha Stewart I knew and I loved her like a Mother because she taught me so much.

 I called her Aunty and her husband was Uncle (those were the days when every adult was called Uncle or Aunt) everyone else called her Meet Seat Sa (her nick name-phonetically) or Teta (Aunt) Meet Seat Sa.

 Well......, Meet-Seat-SA  was quite a social butterfly and either people were coming over to her house for coffee or she was going to theirs (Turkish coffee in small cups and after you drank it they read your fortune in the grounds!) 

There was always some kind of pastry or cake at the ready in her house and a meal could be whipped up at the last minute no problem to accommodate any crowd that dropped in. She made her own noodles for chicken soup and stretched strudel dough so thin it fit over the entire kitchen table.  Aunty kept a very neat and tidy home and nothing was ever out of order. All cupboards were perfectly organised and she even ironed her husband’s boxer shorts and all the sheets & pillow cases. She was a rock star!

 Everyone should have a Teta Meet-Seat-Sa in their lives to learn from!!

This is me and Kim. I am the one on the left & Kim is on the right. Notice a few details about the subjects. Kim is so cute and has adorable hair with that perfectly tied blue bow and look at that darling dress & those nice shoes! Now look at my “bowl” cut –  Thanks! my mother did it. My dress is too small and I am wearing socks and flip flops....seriously!!! No wonder they took pity on me!

 I think everyone should know how to prepare at least a few simple things so you don’t starve to death or have to survive on Kraft Dinner. If you are going off to University or moving out on your own, man or woman, everyone should have a few things in their arsenal. You really have to know how to make a great spaghetti Bolognese, something with eggs like a frittata, a good burger and a simple stir fry. If you master a few things chances are you can impress a special someone when you just don’t feel like going out! And come on!!!...Cooking for someone you love is the ultimate gift. You gain confidence when you master those few things and they become your signature dishes... and then you just want more.

 

Welcome to my world!

Hilda