Let's get cooking!

When I was growing up, my mother did all of the cooking.  My father was an American with some Irish, Welsh and maybe some other ethnicities in his lineage.  His European roots never had much influence on us.  My mother, on the other hand, hails from the Greek island of Cyprus.  As a child, I ate all of the typical American food but we also ate Greek food pretty regularly.  I didn’t know that my friends and classmates were not dining on Macoronia de Forno (patstitsio) or Keftedes or Soupa Avgolemeno.  As an adult, I cooked some of my Greek favorites on my own and enjoyed others at the Greek festivals and occasional Greek restaurants.  I have perfected Baklava and will put mine up against my mother's any day.

When my husband and I first became a couple, he made it clear that he liked to do the grocery shopping and cooking. No problem.  I didn't mind having hot food placed in front of me at all.  I did cook a few of the dinners and he seemed to enjoy what I made...as long as it was something he was familiar with.  My husband did not seem to have the palette for Greek cooking.  As years went on, his tastes matured and he enjoyed the occasional dish at the festival.

After what seemed like forever, he finally proposed marriage to me and we decided to fly to Cyprus and get married in the church where my parents had married.  We were in Cyprus for three weeks and he quickly fell in love with Greek food.  But, for some reason, still not my cooking.  We had settled into the habit of his doing all of the cooking and he remembered a few dishes of mine that he did not like.  Funny, he didn't remember all of the dishes of mine that he did like but, oh well.

I recently retired and we have decided that we really don't want the kids back in daycare so I am starting my adventure as a stay at home mom.  This means that I am now also the head chef.

Follow my journey as I re-learn how to cook the old dishes and experiment with new ones.  I plan on introducing my children to the flavors of Middle Eastern food and also plan on trying some new flavors.  I will cook some of our family staples, some of your family staples and maybe order in a pizza now and again.