Cooking:

    
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Above is my kitchen! It is located on my covered deck 12 X 28 feet with ceiling fan and a deep sink and hot water heater and a 3.6 cu.ft frig! I'm ready to cook! There is a short story about how I became a cook. I retired from the ministry in 1998 after 43 years of active service. Margaret and I have experienced poor health since then, but it hasn't stopped us. Four heart attacks and I am still plugging along although not as fast as in earlier years. Margaret has suffered several strokes and is permanently on a walker.

Last fall, while in the depths of depression, she shared with me that she couldn't cook any longer and showed me her arms covered with burns caused from falling on the stove. She was in bad depression when she stated that we were going to have to get someone to cook for us. We have a maid coming in 3 days a week to clean, dust, make beds, etc. I knew it would be difficult to hire additional help because if we did, we couldn't afford food. So I thought a while and told her that I would do the cooking. In the depths of her depression, a grin began to break across her face...you cook?!

Sure I said, I've always wanted to learn! Here's the deal! I'll do the cooking and you sit at the kitchen table and tell me how; in a sense I will be your hands and feet. You can explain how and I will do! We started with a bang. Simple stuff like scrambled eggs, bacon, toast and coffee for breakfast, sandwiches, tea or milk or a soft drink for lunch and soup for supper. Hey, this was a snap.

Only I didn't count on one thing, women have their own way of storing their pots and pans and arranging the "stuff" in the pantry. I couldn't find everything, so since I was the Emeril Lagosse of our household, I began to arrange things by what was used the most and placed those pots and pans nearest the stove. I arranged the groceries and canned goods as I did my medical supplies while in the Hospital Corps of the Navy and Marine Corps. Logical, sure: Itemized, categorized, and alphabetized!  Then the other shoe fell, "Get out of my kitchen, I can't find a thing to cook or anything to cook it in!" But Marge, I thought I was going to do the cooking. I'm tired of eggs, sandwiches, and soup. What's a poor man to do?

I said, "Hon, I'll be back in a little while." I drove to Columbus, MS to Lowes and bought an eleven hundred dollar Jenn Air solid stainless steel gas grill. It was as big as a casket. The instructions said you could cook 60 hamburgers on it at one time. (Or the same area filled with steaks, etc.) It has two doors, and two huge drawers. What a beauty. Then I purchased a small frig just to keep stuff cold from the main refrigerator and freezer. A 20 gal. hot water heater and a deep sink to wash pots and pans in. Hey, I didn't have any pots and pans. So I went to Wal-Mart and purchased a complete set of stainless steel thick-bottomed cookware. I was really clicking, I got a 5 quart Dutch oven with tempered glass top (every thing has that kind of top) 2 4 qt sauce pans, 2 3 qt. sauce pans, 2 2 qt sauce pans, 1 1qt sauce pan, a large stainless steel  and a small SS skillet. I stopped by the restaurant supply house and bought spoons, big SS and wood, graters cake pans can openers, garlic press, a set of knives and everything I had ever seen her use. Then on the way home I stopped by the Gas company and bought Arthur a Magic Chef gas range with  auto ignition, no pilot lights for this new cook! Then I saw a gas smoker 16 X 16 inch by 48 inches not counting the legs.

I went home and as my stuff arrived I had it set up. Margaret liked to have fainted! She said, "Take that stuff back and use OUR stuff!" I said, There is no way I would cook for my bride of 54 years on that old stuff." I knew now I'd better learn to do some serious cooking.

I now bake hams, fry chicken, prepare casseroles, as in green been casserole with mushrooms, Chinese  water chestnuts and cream of mushroom soup poured over them. I do Italian foods, Spanish dises and Cajun gumbo from a cookbook given to me by a friend whose father cooked with Justin Wilson. I do corn every way but in a jug, mashed potatoes, sweet and Idaho, I candy sweet potatoes, My spaghetti recipe comes from a lady (former landlady) in New York who came over from Italy and could barely speak English. I bake beans and ham, kosher hot dogs, I bake pecan pies, cherry pies, apple and peach pies. I bake pound cakes in loafs or in bunt  pans. I bake white bread, and white bred with raisins and cinnamon. And cornbread that would make you kiss your mother in law for. Even tried Eggs Benedict (still have problems with my hollandaise sauce. But I am satisfied that I'll make it right someday. I just learned to make caramel icing that doesn't crack and fall off. My biggest challenge was Divinity Candy. I made the recipe at least 20 times just to see it settle like cow patties. I did it day and night, sunny days and rainy days. After nearly 30 tries, on a rainy, blustery day I had my first success, pure and creamy. Don't let people tell you it can't be made on a humid or rainy day, cause it can. I had a few more flops, but finally realized the secret that successful divinity makers won't tell you. They will tell you everything but the one thing that insures success. And I am going to tell you right here and you can laugh in their face or spit in their eye, but you can make it successfully every time. The secret is to beat it at high speed for 5 to 7 minutes after you have poured your boiling sugar heated to hard ball temp measured on a good candy thermometer, pour it slowly so it will cook your egg whites and beat it at high speed for those 5 to 7 minutes until it begins to climb up you beaters or whisk. Spoon some on wax paper and make sure it stands at attention like a Marine, if it starts to sink, beat it some more. I even got the chemistry book and checked the molecular structure of sugar. The sugar molecules must stick together or you get white cake icing or cow patties. I didn't mean to get off on this tangent, but divinity was the greatest frustration in my cooking so far. A lady asked me how I learned to make good Divinity...I told her as a Methodist Preacher, I went to Divinity School. Don't be tempted to spoon it before it is ready. Failure comes with not beating it enough or long enough...time it and test it.
 

 
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