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The Hearth

Food, the preparation of it and the consumption of it, has always played a large role in my life. Many of my memories and interactions with my loved ones revolved around food. I come from a long lineage of excellent cooks so it's only natural that I have such an affinity to food. I love eating, as most people do, but there are times that I enjoy baking or cooking even more. Cooking can really get your creative juices flowing, and in the end, there's always a great sense of accomplishment.

My early experiences in the kitchen were at the bottom of the food chain, so to speak -- I started off as a dish washer. I was barely tall enough to reach the sink, much less wash the dishes, but each night, a chair was pulled up next to the sink so that I could participate. When you're four years old, dish washing isn't a chore so much as it is an opportunity to play with water and soap, and to be perfectly frank, I doubt if I was much of a helper. Still, dish washing is a great opportunity to bond with someone if you are working as a pair (a soaper and a rinser). I've no doubt that my mom and I enjoyed each other's company during this nightly ritual.

From dishwasher, one can be promoted to prep cook, which was the next phase of my kitchen career. As a prep cook , I was allowed to wash vegetables, measure out ingredients, pour, stir, and taste. At the grocery store, I also learned how to pick the best produce. I started to learn how to season soup and how to adjust it to taste. I started to learn the basics of cooking.

After some years as a prep cook, the executive chef may decide that she needs a pastry chef. Here I developed my first love for the culinary arts...baking. I loved baking because you could mix up some ingredients, stick it in the oven, and forget about. Then, after some time, a delicious gem would emerge. Yum! In addition to baking, I was promoted to line cook. This is where one stands at the hot stove and does the actual cooking, all the time under the watchful eye of the chef. The heat can sometimes be unbearable, and the mishaps extreme (I remember one grease fire that nearly cinged the ceiling and a number of other burned dishes), but the reward great. As a line cook, you can sit at the dinner table and point to something and say, "I made that!"

After proving themselves as line cooks, some are promoted to sous-chefs. The sous-chef is the right hand of the executive chef and is also second in command. As my mom's sous-chef, I really started to appreciate the joy of cooking. I saw that cooking allowed for more experimentation as compared to baking. Cooking taught me to improvise and to think on my feet. Cooking showed me the importance of organization and forethinking. Cooking can be a way to express yourself.

In many ways, even though I have been cooking on my own for many years and am somewhat adept at it, I am still a sous-chef. I am constantly learning new things about cooking methods, ingredients, and flavor combinations. Throughout my culinary education, my mother was patient and did all she could to impart in me all that she knew. I didn't learn just about cooking and food in the kitchen, I also learned a lot about my mom and about life. Were it not for our shared love of food and cooking, my mother and I wouldn't be as close as we are.

I am working on a cook book with my mom, compiling some of our favorite recipes through the years. Some of them are shared here for your enjoyment. Feel free to send me feedback regarding how any of the recipes turn out.