The Beginnings of a "Frugal Gourmet"

I remember when I was a little kid we didn't have cable (I know right? How did I live??) so on weekends I would watch KERA cooking shows. Yan Can Cook, Julia Child and my favorite, The Frugal Gourmet. These people amazed me with their cooking but the frugal Gourmet was even more so incredible because I did not have the foggiest idea what the world "frugal" meant. I remember looking it up in the dictionary and thinking "This is for me!" I was just a kid but my mom was single and I did a lot of the cooking so I thought if I could save her money it would be awesome.

This started an interesting trend of me creating recipes from whatever was laying around the kitchen. My mom had a few cookbooks so those usually helped with techniques and inspiration but we NEVER had all of the things required.

I was certainly not the best "chef" at 10. I remember once I decided I would make my mom a meatloaf. I was really excited. I had my Mom's recipe in hand and I was ready to amaze her. I slaved away for hours making dinner just right and when she got home she was really surprised! The surprises didn't end there though, when we took our first bite of this amazing meal I had lovingly prepared we were very surprised to learn that, in my excitement, I had forgotten to actually put any seasonings in the meatloaf. It was pretty much as the name describes, a loaf of meat. Thank GOD for ketchup!

I was just thinking about this story. My mom loves to tell it and it always makes her laugh. By the way, I make a much better meatloaf these days!

That is all.

Heather