Lessons Learned in Pursuit of Food

In the past year, I’ve discovered my inner chef and it’s something I’ve come to really enjoy. Of course, it isn’t something that happened right away. In fact, I’ve made periodic voyages into the culinary world in the past and learned a number of lessons along the way.

To be honest, I’ve always been a fan of food, though it may not have appeared as such when I was a child. While I inhaled childhood favorites such as pizza, hamburgers and hotdogs I would struggle with foods like poor man’s stroganoff or goulash. It wasn’t until my 20s that I made my first real adventure into the kitchen. During a trip to Phoenix, Arizona with my mom I tried Athenian Spaghetti. I enjoyed the dish so much that I wanted to recreate it when we returned to Saratoga.

I bought the necessary ingredients and set out to make the dish for my mom and I. I followed the instructions to the letter, or so I thought. The first lesson I learned was not to mistake teaspoons for tablespoons. Especially when it comes to ingredients like crushed red pepper. Instead of a dish with a little bit of heat to it, I had created a dish which burned the entire way down. Needless to say, the first recreation of Athenian Spaghetti was not saved.

The second time, I followed the directions closer and the dish turned out just great.

Later in my 20s, I would often provide a dish for my group of friends during our gatherings. While others would provide the main dish, desert or a salad the one I was asked to bring was stuffed mushrooms. Everyone in the group raved about the mushrooms. The second lesson I learned was that less is more.

The stuffed mushrooms weren’t anything fancy. I would de-stem and clean out one or two containers of baby portabella mushrooms, brown a roll of Jimmy Dean sausage and then add it to a block of cream cheese after I drained the grease. Then, I would stuff the mushrooms with the sausage/cream cheese mixture, sprinkle it with shredded cheese and put it in the oven until the cheese melted.

I wish I could say that my culinary experience was expanded during this time. It wasn’t. More often than not dinner consisted of a can of Chef Boyardee, a microwave meal or hot dogs. Eventually, I started to experiment with a food source that I often turned up my nose at while growing up. The third lesson I learned was not to knock Spam.

Spam is often looked down on as a culinary ingredient due mainly to its connection with its affordability for lower-income families. During World War II, it was the only meat-like dish shipped to Hawaii and thus became an integral part of the culinary culture of the islands. Recently, I have tried spam musubi and have come to love it. It is also a favorite of my wife, Telitha, who has more than once expressed her disdain for the canned meat product. It is, in fact, a very versatile ingredient that can provide the much needed protein for a dish.

Then, for a number of years, I didn’t really venture into the kitchen much. There were several reasons for this, but can mostly be chalked up to the fact that Telitha had no problem whipping up a dish in the kitchen. And while I would “man the grill” from time-to-time I didn’t get too creative. A couple steaks here, some hamburgers there and the occasional bratwurst.

Last year was the catalyst for my culinary adventures. After a number of changes in the summer, I needed an outlet. I had already started to try my hand at smoking and I found that I enjoyed it, a lot. At one point, I had found a barrel-style smoker at Bridge Street Bargains and began to use it. It wasn’t the most ideal build and had limited space to move around the wood chunks and charcoal. I tried a brisket flat on it one day. I had soaked the brisket in a Vanilla Milk Stout the night before and put it on the smoker. Less than five hours later, it was too temperature.

What I ended up feeding my family and in-laws was, essentially, vanilla flavored shoe leather. Thus, my fourth lesson of don’t rush anything that takes time.

Eventually, I was lucky enough to wind up with smokers that had temperatures easier to regulate. Once I had that, my journey began in earnest as I smoked brisket, pork shoulder and even cheesecake. Eventually, however, winter arrived and my lack of outdoor outlets meant I couldn’t run the smokers. So, it was time to try new things in the kitchen.

Thanks to a social media app which “pins” recipes and other ideas, I was able to try new things such as southern fried catfish, street tacos and sushi bakes. A favorite in our house, however, quickly became chicken Yaki udon. Using cabbage, green onions, carrots, mushrooms and, of course, chicken this dish was something that not only Telitha but my son, Jareth, considered a comfort food. Udon noodles, proper udon noodles, look a little weird at first. They’re white and thick but extremely delicious.

This led me to lesson number five: don’t be afraid to try new things, you just might like them.

That fifth lesson, to be honest, could be considered the culminating lesson all together. From the Athenian Spaghetti to the use of Spam to smoking meats, it was all about trying something I had never done before. While there was certainly fear that I wouldn’t do it right, the end result was pride in a job well done. Especially if my family enjoyed the dish. It also became something of a stress reliever, at least if I knew I had the time to put the prep work in before cooking.

Unlike Telitha, I try to be very meticulous when it comes to the recipes. I want to make sure I get every measurement of every herb and spice correct, to apply the correct amount of seasoning or rub, and to ensure everything is at the right temperature. I suppose there is one more lesson I could learn, especially from my wife.

When no recipe can be found, make your own.