Cooker boy-that is what Lesli calls me

What's up with all of the baking and cooking? When I was growing up there was never a hint that I would like to cook or bake or that I would be good at doing it. I have always been able to whip something up and make it taste good. When I cook I rarely use a recipe, and when I do use a recipe, I almost always adjust it.

I have taken a number of recipes and changed them and made them better. One of those is my ministrone soup. I use fresh vegetables and I puree them in stock or tomato juice which adds tons of vitamins and flavor. It is a good thing that I have a 24 quart pan because what starts out as a little soup ends up filling the pan.

One of the first examples of my creative cooking side came when I was single and living alone in Washington after getting out of the Navy. I didn't have a lot of money for food, so I created a dish using raimen noodles. I would take vegetables and stir fry them in a little soy sauce and use the flavor packet from the noodles. I would then cook the noodles, drain and add to the vegetables. I would then either add a small can of tomato sauce and make it an Italian dish or I would a sour cream and make it like a stroghanoff. I would also cook hamburger and add it to make it a beef stroghanoff. That is how "Spaff special" was born, and it was a favorite of my kids when they were growing up and it got them to eat broccoli and zucchini.

Two years ago, Lesli and I decided to put my culinary skills (limited as they were) to use. I say they were limited because I had only cooked for my family and maybe as many as 12 people at a time. I had no idea how to create dishes for large numbers of people. I had baked some brownies and a few things for Lesli's Love Notes class, but that was all the experience I had with making food for a large number of people. So, we used Lesli's class as our "taste testers" as I would make salads and soups and lasagna and a variety of desserts. This period coincided with her class size growing from around 120 to 180. There were a number of ladies who would comment that they weren't much of a card maker but that they loved the food.

Most of the customers we had when we were catering were Lesli's students. They would say they wanted the soup or the salad or the sandwiches or the brownies that they had in class. We had plenty of events and we always got rave reviews. I would say that I made the food taste good and Lesli made it look good. We were an AWESOME team. The problem we had was in charging enough to make it worth our time because they were all her friends. We did make money as caterers, if you call $5.00 an hour making money. That is what it was sometimes after all of the expenses. We did have a few events where we made good money, but most were on the low end.

If we were to do it again, we would have someone else manage it and set the prices for the event so it would be worth our time. I can't see us having the time to do it again, but we will do something on rare occasion if the price is right.

I still like to cook or bake for Lesli and am still amazed how well things turn out. Maybe in a previous life, I was a famous chef.