Fave Member – WhiteOak

Posted by Correen in Fave Member, WhiteOak | 2 comments

Congratulations to WhiteOak – our Fave Member from FoodLoversWeb.com for 08/2010!

Mad-Scientist of Cooking

Why do you think I am often called, Mad-Scientist of Cooking? Well like everything else I do, I am not afraid to experiment. I use to spend a lot of time in the kitchen with my grandmother when I was a child. She would always be cooking huge meals for the family. As I got older I would spend numerous hours talking with elderly people, I even volunteered at a Senior Citizen Center just to be able to talk to the residents.

Many stories that were shared with me had to do with living through the Depression. Feeding a family back in those days was hard, challenging and there was no choice but to learn to be creative. They had very little to work with and most of time had several children. I suppose I have taken my experiences from grandmother and all of the stories about the Depression and taught myself a lot about Low-Budget Cooking.

I had to learn to budget grocery money in order to feed a family of four on an income for two. Back in the early eighties money was sort of tight but I was determined if people could make it through the Depression, I could learn creative ways to feed a family of four on our salaries.

When I was nineteen an elderly lady taught me how to make “Southern Biscuits” from three ingredients; self-rising flour, Crisco and buttermilk. I can still hear, “Eva, do not over work the dough it will make the biscuits tough.” So throughout the years I have revised the recipe to make it healthier, sometimes savory, and sometimes sweet. I wrote a Squidoo page called One Recipe for Biscuits and Flatbread, that features my recipe ideas.

I am somewhat of a frugal person and LOVE sales, especially chicken. When it is on sale I will usually purchase a few packs and bulk cook it. I wrote an article called Five Easy Recipes that saves you money; it is convenient and cuts down on the heat in the summer months.

The way I look at cooking is: if you make a recipe that is horrible, learn from the mistakes and not make it again. If you create a recipe that is good, share it with others and keep it to use again. Oh, and whatever you do, don’t forget to write the recipe down!

One reason I really enjoy FoodLoversWeb.com is because it gives me a chance to share some of my experiments with you. It is a place that allows you to share what you love to do, share recipes you have found and in this case it gives me a chance to write and share some of my own concoctions.

So until next time, this Mad-Scientist of Cooking will leave you with this: If you only had three ingredients on hand-try using your imagination and create something new-I bet you can do it! Never be afraid to experiment, you never know until you try. Isn’t that how new recipes are created?

Happy Cooking!!

Eva (WhiteOak)
Blog: Recipes From WhiteOak’s Kitchen

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Image Credit: Midnight Halloween 2010 by WhiteOak50 on Zazzle
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