When I got married I ate two cooked vegetables, potatoes and corn. Salad was usually dry and I usually didn’t eat the tomato in the salad. My beverage of choice with meals was milk.

I had grown up in a family that probably overcooked most foods. If beef had any pink in the middle it wasn’t done. Vegetables were cooked until they were basically mush. This is not to say I didn’t like my Mom’s cooking. I miss some of it a lot, but like many things the style in food has changed. Vegetables from cans are now just a distant memory. Well, except for various beans.

To say food has been an adventure for me may be an understatement.

The adventure got under way on a business trip to Toronto. My customer took me to the King Edward Hotel for dinner. I still remember it clearly. I had filet of beef roasted in salt. It showed up looking like the base to an old-fashioned iron. The waiter inverted the pan onto a cutting board and uncased a block of packed kosher salt. He broke off this thick salt crust by hitting it with the back of a knife then carefully removing it in big pieces. He sliced it into thick slices and added it to a plate with a fan of baby vegetables and a potato gratin. I had my big boy clothes on, so I figured I had to at least try these vegetables. Carrot, parsnip, asparagus, baby zucchini. It was all incredible. The vegetables were what I later found out was called tender crisp. Seasoned to perfection I was hooked; Gayle was elated.

I started watching cooking shows on PBS. Julia Child and Jacques Pepin were soon my heroes. Next I was on to basic French cooking classes taught by Elizabeth Skipper, a former student of noted French Chef Madeleine Kamman. I followed that up with a class by Jacques Pepin and later with classes in Boulder, CO and Carlsbad, CA.

Time went by. I travelled, I ate, I learned, I ate, I cooked – I eat. I probably eat too much, but that’s a different story.

I love cooking and I love watching cooking. The Food Channel and Cooking Channel were made for me. I still relish the rare open restaurant kitchen where you can watch magic happen.

The recipes in this collection are a mix of my own and those I have collected from magazines and websites over the last 40 years. Some have no attribution; the original author has been lost. If you recognize them, let me know the source and I will update them in a future edition. If they have a credit they are probably copyright of the author, publication or website where I found them. However, I’ve modified most of these recipes. It’s not that those professional chefs didn’t know what they were doing but often their goals for seasoning and mine don’t match.

I’ve made most of the recipes in this collection. Some often, some only for special occasions. I admit that I haven’t made them all, but that is mostly due to lack of opportunity or general laziness. If I have included them, they are in my “to be made” category. I find these recipes so appealing that I can’t leave them out. Some dishes are family or holiday staples. Chicken with wine sauce, Nowell spaghetti sauce and various schnitzel and stir-fry recipes are weeknight standards. Steak Diane and Chicken Parmesan are more for company or a special meal. Rib roast served with Roasted Potatoes and Shallots, Glazed Carrots and Mini Yorkshire Puddings have been a holiday tradition since they appeared together in Bon Appetite in 1982. Julia Child’s Chocolate Soufflé Malakoff was a Nowell Christmas tradition for years, and I have great memories of cooking other family favorites with my daughters.

Most recipes are within reach for almost everyone. Some are not and require a fair degree of skill to attempt. Beef Wellington can be a challenge as evidenced by the time I forgot to cut the shaping string off the browned filet before I added the duxelles and wrapped it in pastry. That made slicing a challenge. I don’t have a Beef Bourguignon recipe in here. Julia Child’s is the standard and needs no modifications.

Cooking is more what you make of it than what you make. It can be just another task that you do to survive, or it can be a gift that you give to your family and yourself. Cooking can truly be an adventure.

The recipes I have included here are all souvenirs of my adventures. Experiment with them. Have fun. Make some new ones of your own. Enjoy the adventure.

Scott