The Creativity of a Meal

By Carol Woolum Roberts

I have always enjoyed spending time in the kitchen.

I was very fortunate to have a mother who gave me free reign in the kitchen.  The first cake I ever made by scratch was a pineapple upside down cake made in a cast iron skillet.

There was a columnist in the Spokesman Review newspaper when I was growing up named Dorothy Dean.  Mom enjoyed reading the Dorothy Dean columns.  When you could get a three ring binder and fill it full of Dorothy Dean recipes, mom was on it. 

The Dorothy Dean binders were a bit like the 70’s version of Pinterest for recipes.  Each leaflet had a theme, (like a page on Pinterest) and you had an index for each group of leaflets to help you find the recipes.  Some examples of the names of the leaflets include “Cooking Wild”, “Pick Peaches and Pears”, “Hamburger Scores Again”, or “Big Game Brunches”.

One of my favorite things was to read over the recipes in these binders (there were two, and they are now on my shelf of cookbooks in my kitchen) and plan different items for dinner.

A recipe I remember making once was Sauerbraten. This was from a blue leaflet titled “World Wide Meals”. I think Bugs Bunny may have talked about it in one of his cartoons, so I thought it sounded interesting.  Or maybe it was Colonel Klink in “Hogan’s Heroes”.  However I had heard about it, I decided to prepare it.

If you are unfamiliar with this recipe, you take vinegar, water, bay leaves, peppercorns, cloves and onions, bring them to a boil, and then pour over a beef pot roast.  Then you cover and refrigerate the meat with the marinade for two days, occasionally turning the meat over the two days. (Yes, I did this!! I was only 11 years old)  Then you take the roast out of the marinade and dredge it with flour and salt and pepper and brown all sides in hot shortening.  Add the marinade to the pan , bring to a boil and then reduce the heat.  Cover and simmer for 2-3 hours.  (I am pretty sure this was all happening in our big, black cast iron skillet again).  Once the meat is done you remove it from the pan and make spicy gravy made with the drippings from the meat, sugar, salt and gingersnap crumbs. 

Now my dad, Pert Woolum, was a meat and potatoes kind of guy.  He didn’t eat a lot of different kinds of food.  When he would not be home for dinner, those were the nights we would get Chun King Chinese food from the cans, or maybe tamales, or T.V. dinners.

But I remember Dad always being a good sport when I would prepare these dishes.  He tried the Sauerbraten.  I am not sure he liked it, but I was never made to feel foolish for making it. My love of cooking and trying new things, and being creative in the kitchen, continued.

One of my favorite creative things to do is plan a multi-course meal with a theme.  Start with an appetizer, then soup, then salad, a main dish, a side dish, bread and dessert.  The first year Paul and I were married we made an English-themed meal for Christmas.  And a tradition was born.  We now pick a different country each Christmas and create a meal of the food from that country.  This year we had food from the country of India.

Almost each week Paul and I are joined by my brother Bill, his wife Debbie, my sister Christy and, if she isn’t working, our daughter Molly for a weekly family dinner.  The person in charge that week creates a meal, and we all contribute to the meal for that week.  Sometimes we are assigned certain recipes.  Sometimes we get to choose our own. 

It gives us all a chance to try some new things, just like when I was in grade school and grabbing those Dorothy Dean binders and reading over the recipes to find out something fun and unique to prepare.

I love being creative in the kitchen.  I am so thankful for parents who let me have that culinary freedom.

We often see the quote “so many books…so little time”. 

The same goes for recipes.

“So many recipes….so little time.”

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