Food Idols, Volume 1

There will be quite a few of these posts, because I draw inspiration and strength from all areas.  Today, I want to focus on the people I actually know.

That's my Gram, in the red.  She had a VERY simple food philosophy: She'd feed anyone, and she'd feed them a LOT.  If you stepped away from her table hungry, it wasn't because she wasn't pushing serving platters at you. A product of her generation, it wasn't done unless it was slathered in gravy.  From her, I learned the basics- how to peel a potato, how to boil an egg.  Basically, how to feed a growing family.  She didn't do fancy, but she knew volume, and she knew comfort food. She was also quite intent that it was not a meal unless it had two vegetables (one green, one not), a meat, a starch and a bread. She also had an uncanny knack for turning nothing into something.  I've evolved quite a bit from the days spent in Gram's kitchen, but she's never terribly far away.  She'd never in a million years have voluntarily eaten the types of foods I cook, but she's forever with me in my attitudes about what food can do for your soul.  And to this day, eight years in to my marriage, my husband is still amazed that I can look at a chicken, and think of a never ending list of ways to serve it.

I don't have a picture of my next food idol, but he had as much impact on my ideas about the kitchen as my Grandmother had on my ideas about food in general.  My Uncle Jody (Gram's youngest son) is very adventurous in the kitchen.  He tends to have a very "Let's see if this will work together!" attitude towards food and ingredients.  And I have to say, it usually works out well for him!  He's got an incredible palette, and is able to pick dishes apart with amazing accuracy.  I keep telling my husband that he'd do very well on Chef Ramsay's blind taste test challenge on Hell's Kitchen.  He's a numbers guy by trade and a born leader, but he's absolutely at home in the kitchen.  He's taught me the confidence to be able to say "Hmm... What if I throw this in there?" and be okay with the chance that it'll all go horribly awry.  And just like with him, it rarely does!  He was recently in Vegas on business, and he had the chance to come to our house for dinner.  He's fed me countless times in the past, but I'd never had the chance to feed him.  I was so nervous for days... Poured over my menu time and time again.  He's very vocal with his opinions- sometimes brutally so.  I knew that if it wasn't great, I'd hear about it.  When the verdict was in, he loved everything.  I've never been so proud of my cooking as I was in that moment. And what shocked me was that I was able to teach him something!

So thus concludes volume 1 of "Food Idols".  Next installation: Food bloggers who inspire me!