White Jacket Required (2 page)

My dad, on the other hand, never really took part in the culinary activities. He was from a small town in Texas and a house of all boys. His mother—my grandmother—despised cooking and often would give each boy a plate and tell them to ring the neighbor's doorbell to get dinner
du jour
. Because of his lack of culinary upbringing, later in life he made it a point to find a wife who could cook. After a series of horrendous dates, he became a flight attendant for TWA in an effort to travel the world and (he hoped) meet a quality woman. Luckily, he met my mother. They were set up by mutual friends while living in a coastal suburb of Los Angeles. My mother was a flight attendant as well, and in an effort to impress her, my dad made quiche in a blender on their first date. He lived in a shoebox-size apartment in Los Angeles, and it was the only recipe he knew. My mom, having come from a tight-knit Midwestern family and a long line of great cooks, simply smiled, nodded, and ate the quiche, which couldn't have been
that
bad, since they've been married now for about thirty years.

Throughout my whole childhood, my mom cooked. She had grown up in Milwaukee, and her grandparents on both sides were immigrants. They passed down recipes and lore from Norway, Poland, and Germany, which my mother ultimately passed down to me. Scandinavian treats were the norm in my house during the Christmas holidays, and my favorite of these treats were the light, airy cookies called
rosettes.
Every December we baked rosettes in the shapes of stars and snowflakes on the traditional rosette iron that my grandmother had passed down to us. When the cookies had puffed up into a golden caramel color, we quickly peeled them off the iron and dusted them with powdered sugar. I had a bad habit of burning the tips of my fingers on the hot iron in an effort to pull the cookies off without breaking them, but the end result was always worth it. In addition to the rosettes, my mother always made homemade
crêpes
with strawberry sauce on Christmas morning while my brother and I opened all the gifts under the tree. The
crêpes
were so thin you could almost see right through them, and I loved mine with extra strawberries and a big dollop of fresh whipped cream. There were also miniature Swedish meatballs and gingerbread cookies made from a recipe perfected in my great grandmother's Minnesota kitchen.

When I was nine years old, my mom decided my passion for cooking was completely out of her hands and enrolled me in a summer cooking class for kids, along with my best friend, Helen; her twin brother, John; and our friend Ashleigh. It was that summer that my passion for cooking really began.

The class was taught by a tall, older Asian woman with short black hair and wire-rimmed glasses. She spoke with a thick Chinese accent and, ironically, didn't really seem to like children very much. She had little patience and was very serious about disciplined cooking. I didn't mind, though, because I was just so happy to finally be free to make food on my own, without my mom peering over my shoulder. Three afternoons each week, we met at the local public school in an empty classroom that was set up with Bunsen burners and a few pots and pans. Large tables filled the room, and construction-paper pies and cakes decorated the walls. I shared a table with my three friends. Miss Kim was constantly telling us to stop chatting, and when she wasn't looking we would make funny faces behind her back.

During that monthlong class, we made a wide variety of foods, from Belgian waffles to fried rice. We made jumbo chocolate chip cookies (and ate scoops of the creamy, chocolate-studded batter when Miss Kim wasn't watching); omelets with cheddar cheese; Hawaiian salad full of marshmallows and pineapple bits; and a delicious cereal concoction called “Puppy Chow,” made with rice cereal, chocolate, peanut butter, and powdered sugar. We all took turns at the microwave, carefully melting our chocolate chips in glass-bottomed bowls. My favorite part, though, was slowly pouring the chocolate over the cereal in a long, thin stream. Of course, I also loved rolling up my sleeves and mixing everything by hand, chocolate getting underneath my fingernails and into the lines on my palms.

After class, Helen and I would race back to my house and remake what we'd made earlier, eagerly perfecting the art of cracking an egg into steaming grains of fried rice or creaming butter and sugar together to make chocolate-chip cookie dough. My favorite thing to make in class was delicate, crisp
pizzelle
cookies. They were made on an iron, just like the rosettes that I knew from home, but the Italian
pizzelle
also had a slight taste of licorice.

For my friends and me, cooking began to become something of a social activity. Instead of going over to someone's house to play, we would go over to someone's house to cook. Helen, Ashleigh, and I would often dress up like Laura Ingalls Wilder or Kirsten, the pioneer girl from the American Girls series. Sometimes we pretended we were on a ship sailing to America from Europe; we were cooks working in the ship's galley. I begged my grandmother to sew me pioneer and pilgrim apparel to wear just for fun, and I took much joy in fastening my tiny petticoat (with ruffles on the end!), lacing up my boots, and tying my apron tight.

If my parents ever questioned their young daughter's mental wellness, they never said anything, just smiled and let me do my thing. On a few occasions, I would go as far as taking all the dirty laundry (or what I
thought
was dirty laundry) to the woods behind my house and then proceed to wash the clothes by hand, with homemade soap that I concocted using an old-time recipe. A few times I cut up green apples into very thin slices, threaded them onto string, and hung them all around the laundry room, to dry for winter. This being the 1990s, there was absolutely no need for me to ration food for winter, but I wanted so badly to be Laura Ingalls Wilder that I took matters into my own hands.

Of course, fantasizing about living in a different century was a childhood phase, but parts of it never really left me. Even as a teenager living in Florida, I would find myself rereading the
Little House on the Prairie
books in secret and being undeniably drawn to all aspects of frontier life. I loved to wear my long blond hair in two braids and took to old-fashioned activities such as horseback riding, knitting, and baking. I always insisted on baking my own birthday cake every year, and chose elaborate Victorian-style cakes with boiled frosting or meringue—the more layers to the cake, the better. I bought my first candy thermometer when I was fourteen and spent hours by the stove, perfecting the soft ball stage of boiling sugar and water together to create homemade ribbon candy.

Every night growing up, my family ate a homemade dinner together at 6:30 with candles on the table and, oftentimes, in the morning, a homemade breakfast as well. Mom loved to try new recipes, and dinners were healthy by most standards. We lived in a small resort town right on the Atlantic, and I grew up packing my little brother into our big red wagon, along with a bag of puffed rice and the family beagle, and setting out on elaborate “adventures” around the golf course that we lived on. After about two hours of forging new trails along the prairie, we got back just in time for dinner, which was usually chicken, seafood, or pasta. Seafood was easy since we lived in a place where fresh fish were caught daily. Because of this, we never ate too much beef—maybe a steak once a month, if that.

My absolute favorite dish was always linguine with clams. My mom used canned clams from the store and finished the dish with a squeeze of lemon, a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese, and hot chili flakes for heat. I would always push all my clams to the side of my plate and save them for last. I loved the salty, briny taste and the way they squeaked between my teeth. Still to this day, linguine and clams is my number-one favorite meal to request when I go home, and though I've tried countless times to re-create my mom's version, I can never hit it just right on my own.

When I finally moved out of my parents' house for college, I craved the familiarity of mealtime and the feeling of fitting in with a group. Going from nightly meals straight out of
Gourmet
and
Bon Appétit
to frozen Lean Cuisine and cereal was a rude awakening. I despised the dining hall on campus, and some days I was so homesick that it felt like my heart was breaking. None of the other students in there seemed to really care what they were eating and filled up on mashed potatoes from a box, greasy burgers, and fries. No one talked about food except to say that you should always eat dinner before going to the bars so that the food would soak up the alcohol. I never drank in high school, and the first time I did, I ended up vomiting all over the bathroom floor. I couldn't understand the big fuss over getting drunk, and that only seemed to further separate me from my fellow freshmen. The only place I really felt like I fit in was the library, so while all the other girls in my hall took turns taking shots before going to campus parties, I would hide behind my books and question whether I was really born in the right century.

My mom would send me care packages full of pieces of home—black-licorice dogs, cinnamon gummy bears, and faded recipes on old note cards. Of course, I had to wait to actually cook the recipes that she sent, but sometimes just running my fingers along the worn edges of the paper seemed to help in a tiny way. After feeling out of place for a year, I transferred to the College of Charleston—someplace much closer to my Florida home.

We'd lived in the Lowcountry for a while when I was very young, and in moving to Charleston as an adult I came to find what seemed to be a missing piece of my own puzzle. The town itself was old and historic, with cobblestoned roads and horse-drawn carriages. I could hear the clopping of the horses' hooves outside my window in the early evenings, and it gave me a sense of peace. Since I was an English major with a concentration in creative writing, my department was small and my classes consisted of about ten students sitting in a circle workshopping pieces of their writing. Gone were the days of lecture and dining halls filled with hundreds of students. Restaurants and cafés lined King Street all the way down to the South Battery, and I made new friends who loved food as much as I did. Instead of going to sorority parties, we would gather at quaint coffee shops and restaurants and talk about food for hours, then go back to our apartments and cook meals for each other.

Every Saturday in Miriam Square Park, there was a huge farmers' market filled with colorful booths of fruits and vegetables. Local vendors sold handmade soaps, jewelry, and other wares. I loved to walk down to the market early and buy a sweet Nutella
crêpe
to eat while I walked around. The hazelnut chocolate was spread so thick that it stuck to the inside of my teeth and occasionally got in my hair as I walked. The scent of coffee and fried dough hung in the air as locals filled their cloth bags with ripe eggplants, peppers, and cherries. For the first time in my life, I was able to taste the difference between produce from the grocery store and produce straight from the farm. At the time, eating local and organic was a relatively new concept that had hit Charleston with full force, and I embraced it wholeheartedly. I bought lettuce that had just been pulled up from the ground that morning, and I also bought fresh Carolina shrimp and local honey.

Foodies and chefs seemed to be more focused on using the freshest ingredients possible than anything nonfat and low-calorie, and that was more than fine with me. Unlike some of the college girls I knew, I never really fell prey to fad diets or eating disorders. When my old college sorority sisters were keeping up with the latest diet craze—100-calorie packs of Oreos, for example—I was snacking on a handful of raw almonds instead. I found that I was able to stay slim by eating small portions of whatever I chose, and I always sought out food made with the highest-quality ingredients. Charleston was right up my alley.

Linguine and Clam Sauce

Serves 4

Hands down, my favorite dish. Since there's no need to buy fancy live clams from the seafood counter, you can make this year-round.

8 ounces dried linguine

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1 large shallot, minced

3 (6.5 ounce) cans clams, drained, with ½ cup juice reserved

Juice of one lemon

¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes (or to taste)

½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Cook the pasta in boiling salted water until
al dente
. Drain and set aside.

Heat olive oil in a large pan over medium-high heat until it shimmers. Add minced shallot and sauté until very soft and tender, about 5 minutes.

Add clams and continue to cook for another 3 to 4 minutes. Add reserved clam juice, lemon juice, and red pepper flakes. Bring to a simmer and cook for 3 minutes.

Toss pasta with sauce, adjusting red pepper flakes to taste. Divide among four plates and serve with freshly grated Parmesan cheese on top.

All-Occasion Yellow Cake

Serves 8

A simple yet delicious cake that comes together in less than 45 minutes. If you prefer, you can make fluffy cupcakes instead (standard-size cupcakes will take about 30 minutes to bake). And, don't forget the chocolate frosting!

1 cup all-purpose flour

1½ teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

½ stick (4 tablespoons) butter, softened

½ cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

1 egg

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

⅓
cup milk

Chocolate-Buttercream Frosting (recipe follows)

Rainbow sprinkles

Preheat oven to 350°F and grease a 9-inch cake pan.

In a medium-size bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

Cream together the butter and sugar. Add the egg and beat until combined. Add the vanilla extract and beat again.