Pizza - A Whole Lotta Love!!!

6:46 AM pada mama

Ever notice that when you love what you are doing, others do too. I am happiest when I'm in the kitchen cooking up a storm! I want my clients to feel the LOVE I put into every sauce, soup, salad, entree, loaf of bread, cookie, sheet of pasta, etc. Cooking just makes sense to me. I write a lot of recipes and I read a lot of cookbooks, however, you'll rarely see a cookbook anywhere in view when I'm actually in cooking mode. It's all from my head most of the time and I get into this total Zen mode (unless I am baking something that requires very specific measurements). I know that I am following my true bliss because of how much I have retained in my head when it comes to ingredient quantities, how to combine flavors, etc. It's been ingrained in me since I was a little girl. Probably as young as eight. I vividly recall my mom making bread dough from scratch and I don't ever remember seeing her use a recipe either. She would make this wonderful fluffy potato bread that was amazing (toasted with lots of butter). She would make pizza dough from scratch and then this wonderful deep dish style pizza that was loaded with home made spaghetti sauce; chunks of cooked ground beef, onion and sometimes briny olives…YUMM! It makes me salivate just thinking about it! I'm so very fortunate that my mom didn't have to have perfect order in the kitchen while she cooked. I know this is why she was totally fine with me helping her out and this is the very reason I learned to cook. She released total control to me sometimes to create my own dishes and she let me have full reign of the space which was pretty smart because she also worked 2-3 jobs and probably needed my help! I loved Saturdays the most when I didn't have to go to school and could get up early in the morning (as I still do, make scrambled eggs, toast, and bacon for everyone. I would carry a tray upstairs to my mom's bedroom with her hot breakfast, a little bud vase if I could find one containing a fresh cut flower from our garden, and usually a hand written note telling her what was on the MENU! My mom liked to sleep in on the weekends (she had four kids - I don't blame her) however, she would still sit up in bed and eat what I had made for her, even though she was probably wishing for a few more hours of sleep. That's what I call LOVE. Thank you mom…you're the reason I love to cook and always will! I'm working on my first cookbook and it will definitely contain a chapter about making pizza dough and fresh pizzas from scratch. In honor of my mother Eleanor Simpson who is turning 80 this year!