Home Ec

My interest in food began in my junior high home ec class one fateful day when one of the school sports coaches (a former cook) demonstrated how to make fettuccine Alfredo. Up until then, I had little regard for what I ate or where it came from.

Canned and boxed foods were a staple of my upbringing, and dinner always consisted of a vegetable, a starch, a meat, and a tall glass of milk. Daddy planted an impressive garden every year (and still does) that provided spinach, zucchini and tomatoes in abundance, but out of season, the vegetables came from cans. The starch was seasoned with the packet it came boxed with, and the meat was never cooked in anything but its own juices. Salt and pepper stayed by the stove, used only sparingly during meal preparation, and my mother was suspicious of spices and the pesticides with which they were likely sprayed.

Fettuccine Alfredo is a staple in my recipe arsenal to this day, and it has only improved with age (and my general disregard for measuring ingredients).

Be dangerous! Abandon your measuring spoons and pinch, sprinkle and dash your way through dinner.