The Main Ingredient

I sent a simple query to the Merced Sun-Star a couple of weeks ago, pitching the idea of a food column peppered with love, happiness, and of course, the spice that makes life, well, interesting. This would be a column featuring recipes, of course, however, wrapped in memories invoking smells of summer barbeques, tastes of traditional (or not-so-traditional) family holidays, the feelings of cooking fudge with your grandma, and the many various sights of families and friends coming together to eat, drink, and be as merry as possible.

This, I envisioned, was a quirky celebration of food, family and friends. A celebration of love.

To my surprise, the editor, Mike Tharpe, immediately responded to my email, asking if I would drop by his office to talk about this proposed food-a-roma (yes, silly pun intended) adventure in writing.

I arrived. Promptly, a tall, distinguished southern gentleman with salt and pepper hair that could have been one of the “good guys” in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird greeted me with a warm smile. Not a typical California smile – hurried, tight and often times, insincere — but a smile you only encounter in parts of the world where drawls are as sweet as honey, and a piece of cake and iced tea are always available to those that come a callin’.

Being a Texas gal, I felt at home immediately.

We spoke for about 15 minutes. And as easy as shoo-fly pie, I proudly walked out the newly minted new food columnist for the Merced Sun-Star.

Then, my pride turned to panic.

I’m a great cook, however, I’m not a trained culinary chef. And like most great cooks, I don’t follow a recipe from scratch and I don’t write down how much cumin I use for a certain dish — I cook with feeling, passion and love. And as outrageous and pretentious as it sounds, my meals always seem to come together with little drama or effort.

Amazing what love can do.

Now I needed to translate that love into recipes that actually work for people who decide to actually make the recipes featured in my column. Yikes!

As I carefully measure my ingredients and check for the perfect degree farenheit, I must admit it feels a bit like I’m in foreign territory. But I’m discovering  my love is transcending  from a “pinch” here and a “handful” there, to, well, more organized and knowing – like a well-worn relationship where each glance, touch, smell and taste is deep and familiar, but elevated, and therefore, that much more exciting.

To my surprise, I’m quickly finding out I like this well-seasoned relationship — it has heightened my awareness and respect for food, and the time and patience required to ensure everyone receives not only nutritional nourishment, but a warm, cozy blanket of love, as well.

My first column hits the press on Wednesday — it’s called, The Main Ingredient — cook what you love, love what you cook, but always remember love is the main ingredient.

I hope you’ll join me on this experimental, crazy ride combining a bit of prose and weirdness, and a large amount of  food, family, friends and libation (no doubt, a heavy amount of libation) – a madwoman’s diary of eats, of sorts. And through it all, I hope you come away with great recipes, and of course, a deep appreciation of what a home cooked meal really is — the ultimate expression of love — the main ingredient. 

You can find me online at the http://www.mercedsunstar.com/ every Wednesday. Tomorrow’s debut column focuses on my philosophy of cooking and food, paying tribute to a very special woman I never had the opportunity to meet, but means everything to me.

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