my family is full of chefs, i am not one of them, like at all!! i cant hard boil an egg to save my life, one of my favorite meals is top ramen and all of the people at the thai food restaurant know me by my first name. when my great grandparents first moved to ojai, my great grandad pat met up bill baker. pat and bill worked together and shared recipes. back in vermont, the other side of the family was running the family candy business, which my mother later took over. these genes ran through the family forcefully. my uncle scott is an awesome chef. my grandma makes the very best comfort food you could ever ask for. then there is my mother. my mother flew to vermont when i was about 6 and apprenticed with my great aunt marie. marie and dick were running the carsner's candy company. there getting old and didn't want to do it anymore. my mother brought the family business out to california, and later to hawaii with us as hanley's candy. my mother made everything by hand in our massive kitchen. day and night she would work making caramel, chocolate, peanut brittle, turtles etc. i would go to sleep and awake to the smell of chocolate and caramel. everyone always says, "wow, your so lucky", actually because of that, neither my mom or i really like chocolate all that much any more.
about five years ago, my mother was working at a job in LA that she hated. she decided to get a student loan and go to culinary school. she worked her ass of. working 45+ hours a week at her job and then going to school all night and all day saturdays. not to mention the commute both to and from work and then to and from school! my mother is insane, i don't know how the woman functions. she finished school. quit her job, sold her house and moved to ojai, after a job offer. she now works in montecito as a pastry chef. she is amazing! she makes the most fantastic deserts ever! all of the guys at the fire station are in love with my mom and her food.
so, needless to say, i was nervous about making dinner. my family knows how i cook. we have alot of family dinners. during this time, everyone will talk about food and wine and marinades, soups, dressings and roues. i always sit and say "ohh yeah i like that stuff" or "what does that mean?" i remember being really young, making cookies and fucking them up. my family would say, "how do you mess up chocolate chip cookies"?. my mother always said they were great, but they were horrid. still to this day, i cant believe i'm going to admit this right now, but i buy the pre-made cookie dough from vons, bake them and then all i say is, "i made cookies".
i was getting nervous about my christmas eve dinner menu. i surfed the internet, looked in magazines and cookbooks. then one day i got a flyer from trader joes. he he he! butternut squash in box. oh yeah, i've had that before and it was good. sweet! i bought a fully cooked ham, 5 boxes of organic butternut squash soup, parmesean croutons, sour cream, chives and salad stuff. i stole my mom's glaze recipe and i was off the hook. the ham only needed to be in the oven for an hour and a half and i poured the soup in the crock pot just heat it. it was so easy. everyone was very impressed and thought i worked really hard! i set the table all fancy and served the soup with garnishments (just like the picture on the box) and it looked really nice. at the end of the night everyone praised me and said "wow, you've really grown up", ha! again i fooled everyone. i even got calls on christmas asking for recipes! "oh, um, it was so easy, you just throw a bunch of stuff in the crock pot!", i said. ha ha! thanks trader joe's.
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