[Ozz]

“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” Virginia Woolf.
I love to eat. In order to enjoy eating, it’s a good idea to learn how to cook.
Sue and I were hooked when we got our Satellite many years ago, we watched all of the cooking shows, it looked so easy on TV. We can now look around the kitchen and find all of the gadgets and small appliances we bought, so we could cook like the people on TV.
We tried the gizmos sometimes a few times, sometimes just once.
It is possible that we just may have put Ron Poppiel’s daughter through college.
When I sold my HVAC business to a big Mechanical company in Chicago, they took me to a Ruth Chris steak house for dinner. I learned they cook the steak in a high temperature oven. The steak was so good, when I came home, I bought a big Stainless high temperature outdoor grill. Spent $1500 on it, burned another $500 worth of steaks before I figured it would be cheaper just to go back to Ruth Chris every other night.
Alton Brown is a favorite, his shows feature the science of cooking with cute little displays and chalkboard talks, one we watched was on fried foods. He had a neat fryer that turned out perfect fried delights. I drove up to Bed Bath and Beyond right after the show, the girls there greeted me as I came in the door, probably relieved that their daily sales projection would now be met.
I bought a slick stainless steel fryer, and a gallon of Peanut oil, raced home and set it up out on our covered patio by the pool. Sue already had thinly sliced potatoes, and chicken tenders ready for me. For the next hour I was frying up all the prepared goodies, the results were OK, but Alton’s looked much better on TV. We haven’t used it since.
The internet is an enabler, when I get an urge, or see something on TV, I just Google it, and a thousand recipes pop up, I hit the print button, and another cooking adventure unfolds.
Growing up, there were 6 of us kids, my mother did the best to feed us on a limited food budget, the meals were filling, but often you couldn’t distinguish one food group from another on the plate. The pressure cooker was often used, I still remember going to the chicken supply house with dad. Chicken necks. We ate pounds and pounds of chicken necks, the pressure cooker would tenderize the bones, so we ate the meat, and bones.
She made dog and cat food the same way, I never knew if the meal cooking was for us kids, or the animals.
I may be a bit of a hoarder, I have two freezers and a refrigerator-freezer downstairs, stocked with steaks, frozen veggies, pizzas, hamburger, and chicken. (No chicken necks)
Whenever we see something good on TV, I have what it takes to prepare it in the house.
I see Paula Dean is on now, I will learn how to cook Southern Meatloaf, better go down to the freezer and get a pound of butter…