Colombian Cooking

I love to cook. I love to experiment and try new recipes, I love to feed my family good food, and I love to eat. I'm really grateful for my love of the kitchen because with an allergic child, it's a must. I have to make things for Diego from scratch and use special ingredients like powdered egg subsitute and soy butter. If I didn't like cooking so much, I don't think I'd have a great attitude about having to search high and low for good recipes for Diego.

I'm not a Top Chef by any means. I still have a lot to learn. I just really enjoy cooking and I love yummy food. I especially love quick and easy recipes. I don't love baking, though. I mean, it's okay, and I'll do it every once in awhile, but I don't love it.

Most of all, I love Colombian food. It's comforting to me and reminds me of home. All the women in my family share my love for the kitchen. Both of my grandma's were amazing cooks, and my mom is fabulous, too. My dad's sisters are great, and some of my mom's brothers are really good as well. (I haven't really tried her sisters' cooking, but I imagine they're just as good.) One of my uncles always jokes that all of our get-togethers revolve around food because we all just love to eat and try new things. I always look forward to family functions because our surrounding family is full of little chefs! And the best part is that they are all willing to share and swap recipes. I hate food snobbery, so I love that if they make something tasty, I can just ask, and they'll share their secret.

I have to admit, my family was pretty surprised that I turned out to be an alright cook. I was the only girl at home, and as such, my mom would often call home form work and ask me to start dinner. And I would whine about it. The only thing I could make was white rice, and eggs. I just wasn't interested in cooking. I didn't understand why I should care about the kitchen when my mom was doing such a fabulous job without me! It wasn't until I started dating Marcelo that I thought.....hmmmm, I better start learning how to cook. So I started paying more attention when my mom was making dinner. I'm a very visual learner, so I learned by watching her. She would mostly make Colombian meals, so as a result, when I make Colombian food, I don't use recipes. I just eyeball it and make it by taste.

However, for American food, I need recipes. During our first year of marriage, I was always asking my sister-in-law Michelle (who is also an awesome cook) for recipe ideas. One time, she said to me, "If you can read, you can cook." She said all you have to do is know how to follow directions and be able to read a recipe. During that year when I was still so new to the kitchen, that became my mantra.

To this day, I still need recipes for American food. I have some things memorized, but for the most part, I look for recipes, and then maybe change little things according to my likes or Marcelo's likes. My Go-To place for recipes is Our Best Bites. (See the "I Love Food" blinkie on the right.) These girls are culinary geniuses and I've loved all the recipes I've tried from their website. A lot of them have really become some of our favorite menu items.

I don't mean for any of this post to sound boastful. Like I said, I'm no Top Chef. But since there are soooo many things I'm not great at (like keeping a clean house, for instance), I think it's okay to mention something I do a good job of, and that's making meals for my family.

So, I thought it would be fun to post some recipes of meals I make for my family. I'm not going to do it often, but every once in awhile, I'll post a recipe or two. It's not like I know how to make tons of Colombian meals. I don't. I just know a few basics that I make pretty often. Anyway, I'll start in the next post, with the most basic staple of Colombian cooking: white rice.