Paper Plate Productions

Pork loin stuffed with pears and gorgonzola

Cooking is a relatively new interest to me. By relatively, I mean within the last five or six years, I started cooking on a regular basis. Within just the last year or so,  I've gotten into studying the science of food and flavor profiles. If you follow me on Instagram, you know I post a lot of food pictures.

Last night, a life-long friend named Andy commented on a picture I'd posted of my latest food experiment asking when I was going to start a cooking show. I didn't see his comment until this morning and I spit out my coffee, I laughed so hard. Not at his comment, but at the idea of videoing what I do in my kitchen. I responded that having my own show would likely be a train wreck and while that's probably true, it's likely that it would, at the very least, be an entertaining one.



There are three things you can count on in my house on a nightly basis:
1. Between 6-6:30 p.m., I will open my first beer (you can set your watch by it).  By now, I think anyone who reads these blogs (all two of you) know I like beer. Drinking commences when meal prep does. This is not negotiable. Drinking lasts until about 10 p.m. This IS negotiable on weekends or special occasions.
2. Dinner will be a production of copious amounts of food and curse words while cooking said food, (i.e. "This is why I fucking hate frying chicken... it splatters all over the damn place and OW... It got my EYE... this is how it ends....") along with intermittent spontaneous bickering about people trying to micromanage while I'm cooking and shouting like an old Scottish pirate, "Get oot of ma fecking kitchen!!!" at people and dogs alike, while pointing towards the doorway with my spatula.
Side note: I'm not Scottish, but some how my control freak issues when it comes to food preparation reduce me to a weird sort of brogue that comes across in a deep, manly voice. Yeah, I don't know why, either.
3. Dinner will always... and I mean ALWAYS be served on paper plates. Why? I don't have a dishwasher and bitches hate dishes. So yeah, I might make you a fine dining worthy meal, but you gon' get that shit on Dixie China. No, I don't care if it's steak... double up on those plates, yo... they were on sale this week. I got two more stacks of them under the counter.

Venison tenderloin stuffed with mushrooms and spinach

I do find it funny that (and I mean funny ha-ha) when I post my food pics on the various social media cooking groups I'm a member of and note that I'm the only one who shows off perfectly cooked venison stuffed with mushrooms and spinach sitting on a party-colored paper plate. Everyone else uses their real china (at least for photo purposes). But, I never much cared what anyone else did or thought. I hear my own drum.

My parents and other people who have known me for more than the last five or so years find it hilarious that I not only cook, but take such a passionate interest in it because up until recent years, I didn't cook. At all.
For one thing, I didn't have time. I worked sometimes 75 plus hours per week. When I was lucky enough to be home, I was too tired to even think about cooking. And once upon a time, there was a time when I might have had three or four pots and pans along with a few cooking utensils. Now, my cabinets are full of equipment and my whole body fills with joy going into the cooking department of any store. In fact, cooking stuff is now on my approved list of things I will voluntarily shop for along with rocks and books; rounding out my list to three items now. My Christmas and birthday lists literally consist of "Cooking junk".  Though I've always maintained a healthy collection of herbs and spices, but those were used for witchcraft... not food.

Turkey on rye paninis with tortellini pasta salad.
All veggies are home grown.

But really, if you think about it.... what is more important than the food you put in your body? I was really super late to the game in understanding how what we eat affects our health both mentally and physically. When my diet consisted mainly of the diner fare from the restaurant my office shared a building with, I was experiencing all of these health issues. I don't include my weight in this because I've always been chubby and after several years of eating "right", I still am. I've got a snails paced metabolism (tested and confirmed) and I hate working out, so....
That said, since I started preparing my own food from fresh ingredients, I lost a lot of the fatigue I struggled with previously and a lot of the health problems I had developed during my tenure as a prisoner at the newspaper. In my eyes, that's a win.

The health benefits are a definite plus, but I think one the things I enjoy most about feeding others (at my house I can feed anywhere from 2-20 on any given night) is seeing people react to what I made. Having someone I love appreciate that creation and comment on how well the pears work with the pork and spiced carrots (because flavor profiles are what I'm studying right now) means a lot.  I love that everyone in my little circle has a special thing that they ask me to make for them on their birthdays or just because.

Lemon chicken with house Lo Mein, Szechuan
green beans and egg rolls because mom asked for it.

Cooking is sharing. Not just the food, but the love and the emotion that goes into the feelings you have for those you feed and as I've said before on my Instagram posts, it's a form of spell casting as well that goes back centuries. Where do you think the idea of chicken soup for a sick person came from? It was often made with herbs blessed for healing. Or the idea of certain foods as aphrodisiacs? Uh, love spells.... Food is one of the purest forms of practical magic. Besides all that... cooking is FUN.

And who knows.... maybe one day I'll make a cooking video and invite all of you to watch my culinary shenanigans first hand.








Until then, you can follow me on:
Instagram: dailgneachd
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/caribbeandreaming/
Twitter: @LucyMagilicutt2

Or you can just subscribe to my blog. <3