What is a “foodie?” One description is, as explained by someone at UrbanDictionary.com: A person that spends a keen amount of attention and energy on knowing the ingredients of food, the proper preparation of food, and finds great enjoyment in top-notch ingredients and exemplary preparation. A foodie is not necessarily a food snob, only enjoying delicacies and/or food items difficult to obtain and/or expensive foods; though, that is a variety of foodie.

That describes many people, myself included.   I think the reason that I am a foodie is that I have such a heritage behind me of great cooks, and because I have three teenage boys at home who need an abundance of food to keep them full and growing.  (They are growing, too, believe me! They’re all towering over their mama now, and seem to be taller every few days. )  If I’m going to spend so much time cooking and baking, I might as well enjoy it and do a good job of it.  Therefore, I have a food blog, a cookie business, am taking cooking classes, am learning food photography, etc.

Yesterday was a great day for a foodie such as myself!  I baked cookies all morning; specifically, my secret recipe chewy ginger cookies.  I wanted to share them with the people I was going to be with later in the day.  While I baked them, I put together a pot of homemade chicken noodle soup and some jalapeno cornbread for the guys to eat while I was away from home later in the day.

Next, I had a meeting with my friend Carrie at  Nutty’s Peanut Butter in Grand Saline regarding the Great American Peanut Butter Festival, which is taking place on November 13 in Grand Saline, Texas, and which will benefit the East Texas Food Bank.  More details on that will be forthcoming…..let me just say that we are going to make the world’s largest pb&j sandwich that day.  A record will be set!

I traded Carrie a bag of ginger cookies for some of her fabulous butterscotch peanut butter, and then headed off to Edom for my third cooking class at Edom Bakery and Grill.

Chef Jackson pulled out a nice big salmon from the fridge, and showed us how to cut it cleanly off the skin, and how to properly slice filets from the whole fish. It was interesting, but I was skeptical about eating the salmon.  The times I’ve had salmon in the past left me unimpressed and wrinkling my nose.  It was so strong and fishy! Not my favorite.  However, Jackson assured us all that his salmon was fresh, had never been frozen and that the flavor would be mild and good.

He seasoned it with a dressing he made with herbs and oils and then he used a Greek seasoning, and then he grilled it. We placed the grilled salmon atop a green salad, and drizzled the parmesan vinaigrette over it.

He converted me!  This salmon was perfect! Nice and mild and moist, and perfectly seasoned. I can finally say that I like salmon.  I just have to be selective where I buy it!

Next we made this:

Perfect Alfredo Sauce

8 oz. heavy cream

3 oz grated Parmesan (with a pinch of Fontina for a bit more sharpness of flavor)

1 TBS chopped fresh Italian parsley

1 TBS seasoned salt (make sure there’s no MSG)

2 TBS fresh black pepper

Place cream, seasoned salt, cheese, parsley, and pepper in large saute pan.  Heat until bubbling around the edges; add cooked fettuccine to the pan, and stir it into the sauce. When desired consistency is reached, pour into serving dish, and if you like, top with julienne of chicken, broccoli,  etc.  You can even add things like sliced mushrooms into the sauce as it’s simmering, or whatever you like.   It’s simple and really delicious.  It’s amazing to me how much better it tastes than a jarred alfredo sauce.  The difference is major!

I hope you’ll give this a try on your own in your kitchen!  It’s a great meal to prepare quickly for guests or for your family.  You can make your fettuccine pasta in advance, coat it with a bit of olive oil or canola oil, and store in gallon sized ziplock bag in the refrigerator.  When you are ready to make dinner, whip up the sauce as described above (which took Chef Jackson about 6 1/2 minutes last night; I timed him!), stir in the pasta, and dinner is ready! Perfect for anyone who needs to feed a family or guests quickly.  Please come back and leave me a comment if you try it and let me know how it turned out for you.  I appreciate you guys reading my blog, and it thrills me when you comment!  🙂