Thursday, September 16, 2010

To Food Blog or not to Food Blog


I had posed this question to myself when I realized I had a lot of time on my hands when I became a victim of the economic crisis. In speaking with my sister-in-law, the great Jeanne Benedict, author of food & entertaining books and has appeared on Regis & Kelly, Ellen, and the NBC Today Show, she suggested I should write because she confessed to me that she was envious of my cooking talents in the kitchen and especially on the outdoor grill.

Being raised in an Italian family, we had pasta on Sunday with a Tomato Sauce (I call it Tomato Sauce, shoot me) that simmered for about 5 hours. On the Holidays, we would have homemade Lasagna or Raviolis, and of course the 7 fishes on Christmas Eve. It wasn't till I was an adult that I was surprised when I discovered tomato sauce came in a jar, locatelli cheese can be bought already grated, salad dressing came in a bottle, and pastas could be bought frozen. Apparently, this happened to a lot us of Italian descent. However, my mother warned me about this products as well as going to an Italian Restaurant, stating that it would not taste like what you are used to. She was right.

I can say I was home school trained in cooking from both my mother and father as well as on the job training at the past existed Tiffany Dining Saloon in Center Square, PA. A previously privately owned Steak and Salad Bar establishment that I would not hesitate to recommend and go their as a customer. At the Tiffany Dining Saloon, in addition to cleaning the dumpster area & washing dishes, I was taught food preparation, bread baking and grilling. Grilling at the restaurant was an art, from a clean oiled grill, proper meat selection, and the level of done-ness that went into every steak order.. Besides the weekly bread fights and sneaking beer from the bar, the experience and talents that I learned are still with me today.

Food also played a major part in my social life, instead of taking ladies out to dinner, I simply cooked for them. The dinner that won over "Mrs Cooking with the Dog" was a homemade manicotti, sauteed zucchini with a personal garlic bread. This with a bottle of wine you just can't go wrong.

Now, I continue to do the daily cooking, holiday cooking, and get togethers. Even when I am at someone elses' home, they hand the cooking off to me, especially at the grill. My kids are spoiled because they desire the homemade pastas, sauce, grilled steak and detest the packaged products because my stuff is just better.

To Food Blog to me is for pure enjoyment and to share cooking talents and tastes. At this time I don't see going off unemployment compensation from the revenue this blog is generating any time soon. My objective in "Cooking with Dog" is to present simple food items that are not complicated and that everyone can do them without much effort as well as being able to serve them for dinner on a week night. Since Max is my shadow, it was easy to have him involved instead of keeping him out of the way. Pictures of Max and the food are just great and it sets this blog apart from all other blogs.

The best compliment a food blogger can get is from a person who has read a post and made the item. This has happen to me when the swim team my kids belong to had a covered dish table for the last meet of the season and my Sausage & Rice dish was on the table. Awesome!

6 comments:

  1. Nice blog, Carl. If only Tiffany's was still around!

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  2. I hear ya brother, This is the first challenge for the food blog contest on Food Buzz. Please vote for me on Monday.

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  3. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  4. Really enjoyed your post today and look forward to lots more.

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