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Q: When do bakers share their secret recipes? A: On a knead to dough basis.

 

As child I enjoyed helping my mom make dinner. By the time I was 8, I could cook an entire meal by myself, allowing my mom to do other things such as refinishing cabinets when my parents were readying our house to be put on the market. It was by no means “Master Chef, Jr.” quality and no one cared if it was plated. In fact, I don’t think I knew what plating a meal was until I was perhaps in my 40s. The meals were something simple like hot dogs and beans. I made hot dogs and beans so many times that my dad was aggravated to have to eat hot dogs and beans again. The memory still makes me laugh.

As time goes on, one of the hardest things about being an adult is figuring out what to have for dinner. Although I grocery shop, I leave that task to my oldest daughter and only cook a couple of days out of the week. It is often a task for those couple of days. Many times, what I cook is based off of what do I have or finding a way to fill a need, such as easy digestion or how can I make something diabetic-friendly. Lately I have been looking up recipes, printing them, getting an idea of what goes in it and then doing what I want – which usually includes not measuring and changing the ingredients. It drives some people nuts; others just trust that I know what I am doing. It’s always a great adventure, because we don’t know that it will work until it does. The vast majority of the time it may not be pretty and I will never win Master Chef, but is usually tasty. When I was a teenager there was comedian that had a story about cooking and the punchline was is there a picture of it in the cookbook? I bet it didn’t look like that.

Speaking of recipes, L’OBSERVATEUR is bringing back it’s Holiday Cookbook for 2022. The exact date is to be determined. However, it will be on glossy paper and this year it will have an online photo and recipe contest.

The contest will be online by November 15 at lobservateur.com/contests for submissions. Beginning December 5, readers can vote for their favorites and the winners will be awarded prizes. Submissions may also be sent to 116 Newspaper Dr, LaPlace, Louisiana 70068. L’OBSERVATUER will print more information about the contest and cookbook in the coming weeks.

 

For more information about advertising or general contest questions, please feel free to call 985-652-9545 or email Christine.browning@lobservateur.com.