Some of my earliest memories involve sampling my mother’s delicious cooking while she slaved away in the kitchen for hours on end.
She made this amazing chili with pork stock that she created from cooking down a ham bone in boiling water for 12 hours.
Even though I was tiny, she’d take a saltine cracker and dip it in the chili to give me a small taste before the meal was ready to put on the table. When I was old enough to handle the stove top without burning my hands, she started teaching me how to cook. We started with easy meals like spaghetti, homemade cheeseburgers, and scrambled eggs. Before long I was helping with holiday meals when we had family from all over the country fly in. I never heard one single negative comment about the food we cooked together. This galvanized my interests in making food, and now I save money by cooking my meals instead of constantly ordering takeout like my coworkers. Aside from always having access to delicious home cooked food, I love the aromas that fill my house and leave it smelling amazing for days to come. They get picked up by the central air system and are recirculated throughout the house through the ventilation ducts. Since I don’t use charcoal filters that trap odors, this means that the wonderful food aromas can recirculate indefinitely. One delicious meal can leave my house smelling amazing for days after the fact. It’s far better than using candles stuffed with fillers and chemicals that leave soot everywhere from the burning wicks. Unlike soot, food aromas don’t damage your air conditioner. That’s as long as you don’t accidentally start a fire while cooking!