JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Does she need an introduction? Ladies and gentlemen, Celia Wakefield.
It’s now more than four months that I've been away from my
kitchen. No place to cook in my tiny apartment as a dead two ring electric
burner, plus electric kettle and toaster together with a tiny fridge and
microwave does not kitchen make in my eyes.
Writing and testing a recipe for you has been my JRW Sunday joy over the past few years. Now despite of my lack of a kitchen Julia has taken pity on me and has accepted my commentary on cook books, thank you Julia. (Editor’s note: I told her the JRW readers would riot if they couldn’t get a Sunday column from her.)
"When I am not cooking, I'm reading." Asked about my passion, that is my first response and I would guess that it applies to many of us here at JRW. I would guess that we own or have owned The Joy of Cooking. In my case the British equivalent was Constance Spry Cookery Book. My copy was a twenty first birthday present from my aunt who worked at Winkfield, the finishing school owned by Mrs Spry and Rosemary Hume. (Winkfield closed back in the ’90’s).
The Constance Spry Cookery Book is a most comprehensive book covering a huge range of house wifery skills too numerous to list. It is still available. So imagine my surprise to discover small book called RATIO: TheSimple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking, by Michael Ruhlman. Having reviewed it on line I promptly ordered 2 copies; one for me and one for a newly married friend who is cookery challenged.
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| The "kitchen" is next to the table! |
Here for example is the ratio for bread: 5 parts flour: 3 parts water." even after the hundreds of books on food I've bought, skimmed, read and even recommended, this was an approach I hadn't considered. I wanted to write about this approach and share the RATIO idea with you.
While I consider myself to be a bit of a 'toss it in' type cook and I have encouraged you to follow your instincts when faced with the 'what’s for dinner' conundrum, I accept that to bake, it makes sense to follow the recipe carefully. Here is Mr. Ruhlman stating that we can do it all by Ratio. The following is at the beginning of the book.
The Ratios -
Doughs
Bread = 5 parts flour: 3 parts water (plus yeast and salt)
Pasta Dough = 3 parts flour: 2 parts egg
Pie Dough = 3 parts flour: 2 parts fat: 1 part water
Biscuit = 3 parts flour: 1 part fat: 2 parts liquid
Cookie Dough = 1 part sugar: 2 parts fat: 3 parts flour
Pâte à Choux = 2 parts water: 1 part butter: 1 part flour: 2 parts egg
Batters Pound Cake = 1 part butter: 1 part sugar: 1 part egg: 1 part flour
Sponge Cake = 1 part egg: 1 part sugar: 1 part flour: 1 part butter
Angel Food Cake = 3 parts egg white: 3 parts sugar: 1 part flour
Quick Bread = 2 parts flour: 2 parts liquid: 1 part egg: 1 part butter
Muffin = 2 parts flour: 2 parts liquid: 1 part egg: 1 part butter
Fritter = 2 parts flour: 2 parts liquid: 1 part egg
Pancake = 2 parts flour: 2 parts liquid: 1 part egg: ½ part butter
Popover = 2 parts liquid: 1 part egg: 1 part flour
Crepe = 1 part liquid: 1 part egg: ½ part flour
Stocks and Sauces
Stock = 3 parts water: 2 parts bones
Consommé = 12 parts stock: 3 parts meat: 1 part mirepoix: 1 part egg white
Roux = 3 parts flour: 2 parts fat
Thickening Ratio = 10 parts liquid: 1 part roux
Beurre Manié = 1 part flour: 1 part butter (by volume)
Slurry = 1 part cornstarch: 1 part water (by volume)
Thickening Rule = 1 tablespoon starch will thicken 1 cup liquid
The Farçir
Sausage = 3 parts meat: 1 part fat
Sausage Seasoning = 60 parts meat/fat: 1 part salt
Mousseline = 8 parts meat: 4 parts cream: 1 part egg
Brine = 20 parts water: 1 part salt
Fat-Based Sauces
Mayonnaise = 20 parts oil: 1 part liquid (plus yolk)
Vinaigrette = 3 parts oil: 1 part vinegar,
Hollandaise = 5 parts butter: 1 part yolk: 1 part liquid
Custards
Free-Standing Custard = 2 parts liquid: 1 part egg
Crème Anglaise = 4 parts milk/cream: 1 part yolk: 1 part sugar
Chocolate Sauce = 1 part chocolate: 1 part cream
Caramel Sauce = 1 part sugar: 1 part cream.
Ratios printed above have been taken from Ruhlman's book.
However even if my cooking is via toaster or microwave, I
still love to read about it. Over the past few months I haven't been buying
much food that can be microwaved but I have been buying several cookbooks which
give me great joy.
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat was made into an entertaining Netflix show with plenty of important tips on what foods work well and how to enhance your meals. She has just written a sequel of her experiences - Good Things, Recipes and Rituals to Share with People you Love. It has been very well reviewed. Samin is quoted, "Once I had these off to you these recipes are no longer mine." She sees her act of writing as a connection, an invitation to sit and eat together. I heartily agree with her. I have shared many recipes with JRW over our time together. Some are my originals or my take on a particular recipe and some come directly from other authors, bloggers or publications. I always try to acknowledge the provenance.
This led me to cooking dinner during my last visit to Maine when Julia and the boys were staying to keep me company. As the temperature had dropped significantly I chose to make tomato soup served with raclette cheese paninis. Julia asked me for the recipe so I am reproducing it here. But this is my take and doesn’t have much relation to the commercial tomato soup of childhood. (Editor’s note: Thank God!)
Tomato Soup for Julia
16 oz jar of sweet basil tomato sauce; I used Boves Sauce
Half a sweet onion chopped
8 Garlic cloves peeled and chopped in half
Doz. plus cherry tomatoes cut in half
3 Tblsp olive oil
2 Tblsp or to taste Italian tomato paste – the good quality kind in a tube
1Cup water
1 Cup heavy cream and more to taste at
Sugar, salt, pepper to serve as needed
In a heavy bottom pot heat the olive oil on a low heat
Add onion and garlic, stir to mix and cook on a low heat for 15 or so minutes till soft and clarified, don't allow to brown
Add tomatoes and stir, staying on low heat til softened.
Add tomato sauce and stir together
Pour water into tomato jar, tighten lid and shake to remove sauce in the jar,
Add to pan, mix and continue to cook over low heat
Add tomato paste as season to taste
Cook another five minutes then add cream and mix
Serve hot and top with your choices of sour cream, Parmesan, cilantro or spring onions, even some pesto would work.
But to get back to the cookbooks. One stand out feature is
the beautiful book presentation. Just look at the end pieces of Stanley
Tucci’s, Taste: My Life Through Food. Who could resist those gorgeous tomatoes?
Another book is Amanda Hesser’s, The Cook and the Gardener, Recipes and Writings from France, telling the tale of 22 year old Amanda at the beginning
of her outstanding career in food, which encompasses a James Beard Award, time
at the NYT, as well as Founder of Food 52. Who could pass such a storied book
by? The illustrations alone are worth the price.
What are your favorite cook books or cooking stories, Reds? I’m giving away a copy of BOURDAIN: The Definitive Oral Biography, to one commentor.
This is so interesting, Celia . . . I never thought of cooking as involving ratios . . . definitely something to ponder.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the tomato soup recipe . . . not being a fan of that commercial soup I'm looking forward to trying this . . . .
Favorite cookbook? Well, I have to say I have more than one favorite, but I always find intriguing recipes in "The Frugal Gourmet Cooks Three Ancient Cuisines: China, Greece, Rome" and "The Frugal Gourmet Cooks with Wine", both by Jeff Smith . . . .
I love "The Bakery Lane Soup Bowl Cookbook," from a restaurant that used to be a favorite in Middlebury, VT. My copy is falling apart, but I turn to it whenever I make kitchen staples like mulligatawny soup, fresh apple cake, and oatmeal cookies. Another favorite is "The Moosewood Cookbook" as I'm always trying to make more vegetarian dishes. Thank you for the tomato soup recipe using Bove's sauce - made in Vermont! Will give it a try.
ReplyDeleteIt’s so good to have you here Celia. We always enjoy your creativeness in cooking. Wish I were closer so I could taste it all!
ReplyDeleteThe cookbook I love best is THE WAY TO COOK by Julia Child. It’s my favorite gift to bring to a wedding shower. And it practically opens with how to boil water.
Think about this the next time you are invited to a wedding shower for some sweet young thing who will be lost in the kitchen.
And who can’t boil water!
Welcome back, Celia! I cannot wait to get that new book. Good things. I think I will ask for it from Santa. We are glad you’re feeling perky enough to visit and write a post. Welcome back Ann Mason too!
ReplyDeleteWelcome back, and what a great topic even if you can't make a video of yourself cooking (which I always loved)! I love those ratios. What a great way to present it.
ReplyDeleteOf course I have my mother's annotated Joy of Cooking. It's the standby for so many recipes, although essentially not illustrated. Another standby for me is The New Basics Cookbook (by the Silver Palate) authors. It has fun pen-and-ink drawings and some great recipes I go back to time after time. I have a little book only for muffins, Mad About Muffins, that I have used hundreds of times and it doesn't all apart. And of course the Tassajara Bread Book, that I've been using since 1973 or so. It opens with a nearly poetic description of how yeast works with the baker to make delicious breads.
I want to mention a book our family loves, ON FOOD AND COOKING: THE SCIENCE AND LORE OF THE KITCHEN by Harold McGee. Anything you want to know about food, it's there. My sons and I love to haul it out to answer a question, and then you can get lost in reading more. Delightful and comprehensive.
And happy birthday weekend, fellow Scorpio!
DeleteCelia, hi! How wonderful to see you here this morning. I was thinking about your Sunday column before I opened the blog.
ReplyDeleteI love cookbooks but cannot purchase any more, the shelves are full. These days, I get most of my new recipes on line either from Epicurious or from Sally's Baking Addiction or King Arthur Flour. When the emails arrive with new recipes, I go through them to see if any are appetizing, have ingredients that are easy to find, and if they can be adapted to cook in a Kosher style kitchen. If a recipe looks like something we would enjoy, I print it out. The shelf with the cookbooks I use most frequently is full of folders with printouts of recipes I have found online.
Besides that, I still use my Moosewood Cookbook which is well-worn, Bread Machine Magic ( I bake bread all the time, allowing the bread machine to make the dough), and a Kosher Cookbook that I bought 50 years ago when I lived in Tel Aviv. That shelf also holds several copies of Martha Stewart's best magazines with recipes for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Spring and Summer.
I hope you are having a wonderful birthday weekend! It's lovely to see you here.
Judy, your Martha Stewart magazines reminded me of our Canadian Living magazine. The specials were a small, glossy issue, nothing but recipes around a theme magazine, and the monthly issues were a usual woman's magazine with great recipes. They came out monthly in the '70's and I kept and used them all. There were several favourites (perogies, brownie, radio pudding) that were my go-to recipes. When we moved in 2003, I decided to let them go to save space in packing, and we were going to build a new house and of course 'everything is on line'. Nope, nope, nope. These recipes were back in the day when Elizabeth Baird was the main developer/recipe editor and were made when butter, SALT, and not everything had to be vegetarian or vegan or made from kale was de rigeur. One of the worse mistakes of my life. By the way, their archives does not go back to the origin of the magazine - I looked.
DeleteMargo, my special issues are the ones that are special to me, just her regular monthly magazines with lots of great recipes in them.
DeleteBut you reminded me, I subscribed to Bon Appetit in the early 1970's back when they printed 4 issues a year, then eventually 12 issues. I bought binders for several years of magazines that I used to go through occasionally to find something interesting or unique. When Irwin and I moved to our house from the condo (which was much smaller), I also tossed those binders full of magazines. I will say that Bon Appetit did then, and still does, include recipes with ingredients which a friend of mine described as "precious" meaning hard to find. With today's internet, nothing is impossible to find, besides, you can google substitutes, like I did last week for Madeira wine. But back then...an unknown food item could send you searching. I think that's why I let them go. There are times when I wish I'd kept all of those magazines.
Judy, I subscribed to Gourmet back in its heyday, when Laurie Colwin was writing for it, and I still use some favorite recipes from those years. But when we moved to the current house (30 years ago, yikes!) I tossed all those back issues, and now regret it a bit.
DeleteI, too, tossed most of my Gourmets (And Sphere/Cuisine, which taught me how to cook). But we now have Cooks Illustrated and Milk Street, and cook a lot from NYT. For all of you who have cookbooks (and I have many) there is a site called "Eat Your Books," which a friend told me about. You enter what cookbooks you have. Then, when you have an ingredient on hand, you type that into the database, and it gives you recipes that are in your cookbooks!!! (Some of my cookbooks I don't have memorized.) You can also list Food52 and other sites, so you can get hits from the web (but not from the NYT). This might be a good site for Kit to know about.
DeleteI know what you mean, Judy, about precious ingredients! You learn a lot when you get bold enough to try those recipes, though. My favorite truffle recipe is from Gourmet Magazine. I just realized I haven't made those in a long time. Might be a fun project for Zak and me to try together!
DeleteCelia, so good to hear from you. Your Sunday Foods feed my soul. Welcome back to this Jungle Reds home. Elisabeth PS Julia was right about the riot.
ReplyDeleteYes she was right about the riot! So glad to have Celia back.
DeleteI was never a fan of The Joy of Cooking, (but I am a fan of Celia!) quite possibly because nothing that I ever made from there seemed to work. I do love and use The Fanny Farmer Cookbook, where everything did seem to work. I had it out for Thanksgiving to make the lemon pie filling (I substituted it for curd), the Gooey Gooey frosting (hard to read under the ingredient blobs) and of course the Yorkshire pudding. My son-in-law said when reading the inside cover – this is an antique! Well, so am I…
ReplyDeleteI have mentioned it before, but if anyone would like to read a lovely fictional story about a BBC sponsored cooking contest held during WW2 using ingredients under rationing read The Kitchen Front, by Julia Ryan.
I am going to try the pie crust ratio – I am famous and not in a good way for my pie crust. It will contain lard.
Also not a fan of The Joy of Cooking! I thought I was the only one!
DeleteMy husband bought me the Joy of Cooking for our 1st anniversary (1974). I still have it, but don't cook from it. But one of my potluck go-tos was the butterscotch brownies, which actually won a prize or two.
DeleteWelcome back Celia! The tomato soup sounds delicious!! The cookbook I have used most over the years is The Moosewood Cookbook. I do like the way Katzen gives us different options for many of the recipes.
ReplyDeleteCelia, thank you so much for the ratio rationale. After reading "Lessons in Chemistry" I've come to think of cooking as a chemistry experiment and the idea of using ratios makes perfect sense. Over the years, I've peeked into various cookbooks, but it was usually to just get a jumping off point to do what I wanted. My body has certain needs that aren't usually addressed in cookbook offerings so finding a recipe in the ballpark brings me great joy. Also, I rarely can recreate a recipe as I tend to be a "hmm, this smells right" cook who doesn't measure or even keep track of spices entering a cooking project. What smells right today might not even be of interest to my body in a week or two. -- Victoria
ReplyDeleteCelia: So glad you are with us on this Sunday. We are kindred, cooking and reading lead my list of things to do. You may know that I have a galley sized kitchen; what I had not shared is we are still recovering from Milton, and don't use a stove/oven. I recommend you 86 the non working 2 ring (a ding) electric hot plate and replace it with an instant pot. You will now have multiple choices for food prep that once cooked can be stored in that teensy tiny fridge. About cookbooks. Years ago I got Pan Ams Around the World cookbook. Oh my. it is a 'treasure' of white privilege. What the editors did was try to promote 'exotic food' but changed the recipe to tastes for the 1950's palate. I looking at this, and comparing it to Mastering the Art of French cooking -- my what we can learn about a culture from what is considered to be just plain good cooking.
ReplyDeleteYes, you can do pretty much anything in an Instant Pot, Celia!
DeleteWelcome, Celia! One of my great pleasures is browsing the cookbook section in used bookstores--love finding treasures that have been well-used! Also, the women's groups/church ladies cookbooks--seeing how the favorite recipes have changed through the decades. Right now, I'm finding that the recipes I use most are those handed down by family and friends, plus researching the internet for ideas for the ingredients I have on hand.
ReplyDeleteHi Celia, what a delight to have you here. I will have lots to look up this morning especially interested in Spry and Hume that you mentioned along with Amanda Hesser's cook book. I'm glad you mentioned Ruhlman's book on Ratios. I think I had his book which was published in 2009 and will have to check my bookshelf. I have Samin Nosrat's (Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat) and the first recipe I made were her biscuits which didn't turn out very well. She said to grate the butter into fine grains of sand like size. Our course the biscuits didn't rise much. I normally rub the butter in my fingers to make them pea size and when the butter melts in the oven it causes the biscuits to rise. I always wondered about this recipe she published. However, I use all of her salad dressing and sauce recipes which are fantastic.
ReplyDeleteI used to have a subscription to Cooks Illustrated which I loved because the recipes where so precise down to the exact minutes to saute, boil, bake. I still have all the magazines and love to look through them for ideas, purchasing of products, etc.
Lets not forget Lucy Burdette's Key West Cookbook! And Jenn's many cupcake cookbooks. Yum!
ReplyDeleteCelia, it’s so lovely to see you at the top of the blog today! Please don’t enter me into the giveaway contest. I just popped in to tell you that I have been thinking about you and hope you’re doing well.
ReplyDeleteAs for favorite cookbooks, I have had favorites through the years (Joy of Cooking, Betty Crocker’s Cookbook, Fannie Farmer Baking Book). When I moved last year, I culled my multiple shelves of cookbooks down to a more reasonable amount since I get most of my recipes from online sources (New York Times Cooking, All Recipes, e.g.) these days. However, I want to give a shoutout to The Cozy Cookbook that features recipes from some of our favorite cozy authors like Leslie Budewitz, Cleo Coyle and our very own Jenn McKinlay! — Pat S
I did wonder if you would be featured today, Celia. Lovely to see you. And, yes, I believe there could have been a riot if we didn't hear from you today.
ReplyDeleteI have WW2 copy of the Good Housekeeping cookbook that has a section for rationing. My sister has the copy we grew up with, I found mine at an estate sale. The copy my sister has seems to open up, magically, to the pancakes recipes, which they label as flannel cakes. I learn to make bread using the recipe in that book.
If it's Sunday, then it is Recipe Day with Celia. I was reminded of the saying "If it is Tuesday, then you are in Belgium".
ReplyDeleteYour mention of the toaster and the microwave reminded me of the years when we lived in an apartment where the stove oven suddenly stopped working. We used a toaster oven to bake smaller versions of goodies. And in our condo, we had a stove/oven that did not work so we got a microwave and I remember cooking things in the microwave. Now we have a working stovetop and oven. Small blessings.
We're currently in an apartment with no oven. One adapts. Last winter I was in an apartment in Florence that claimed to have a kitchen, a tiny one. No oven and no microwave (and not much to cook with either). I learned how to steam all sorts of things, as that was all that was available to me. The skillets were all scratched up teflon, so I didn't use them. Sigh.
DeleteSo glad you are back, Celia! That soup sounds divine! Especially with fresh tomatoes off da vine! I couldn't resist!
ReplyDeleteLovely! Jacques Pepin is an artist as well as a chef, so his illustrations are nice. I don’t even eat most of what he cooks, but I love to watch him chop stuff! And many recipes can be adapted.
ReplyDeleteCelia, The Editor was correct--we would riot! So happy to see you here today, and very tickled to see you refer to Michael Ruhlman. I'm not familiar with the Ratios books, but when I was researching my book with the female chef I read a number of Ruhlman's books and loved them. Also Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat! I think I will also be asking Santa for Nosrat's Good Things for Christmas.
ReplyDeleteOn the tomato soup, I've never seen Bove's sauce here in Texas, and I'm not sure I've seen tomato sauce in jar. Can I substitute a good tinned tomato sauce? You didn't give us your recipe for the raclette paninis!
Favorite cookbooks (cookery books!) Dairy Hollow House Soup and Bread, I'm sure I've mentioned this one before. Also many Jamie Oliver's, but the one that is literally falling apart from use is his Revolution, the book he wrote for people who don't know how to cook. It's works equally well as a source of quick and healthy dinners.
And I loved the mention of the Tucci book's endpapers! I loved Taste, as well as What I Ate in One Year, and The Tucci Table.
Welcome Celia. My favorite cookbook is one that I received as a gift many years ago when I was engaged. A Treasure for my daughter which I continue to use and enjoy. Your recipe is perfect and would feed my heart and soul.
ReplyDeleteWhen I have the time, I will cook from one of the many Ottolenghi books I have. I used to bake a lot, and Rose Levy Berenbaum's cookbooks are flawless. Both for bread and for cake and for pies. I learned to cook to cook Italian from Marcella Hazan, and still use some of her books. I could go on. One book that has been helpful over the years is the Flavor Bible, something that Rose recommended on her site. Sometimes it can help in choosing just the right spice or herb.
ReplyDeleteThe above was from Beth G. My new computer has not adapted to this site yet.
ReplyDeleteLove the ratios! Thank you Ceelia - but here's a question: Does "one part egg" mean ONE EGG?? And if so what size? With cakes the egg proportion can be so important.
ReplyDeleteMost European and UK recipes use weight, metric, for ingredients, and that makes proportions more precise. I have been freezing eggs when I find them at a good price, and it's handy to be able to weigh them, since they get whipped and frozen in silicone trays.
DeleteOh, I love the ratios -- especially for the custards. And now I need to go make some salted caramel sauce. Yummm. Such a wonderful post and I hope you're out of your limited kitchen soon!
ReplyDeleteCelia,Whata wonderful posts, I read Michael Ruhlman’s newsletter because his wife, Ann Hood, is one of WWNorton’s authors and I worked with her a few times (and love her books) when I was a New England sales rep at Norton. I keep thinking I should buy his ratios book. SO useful! Iam definitely using your tomato soup recipe SOON for dinner. Thank you! My most used cookbooks are “Sundays at Moosewood” The Stonyfield Farm Yoghurt Cookbook, The New James Beard (1981), and Ann Hood’s Kitcehn Yarns. I love reading cookbooks but am not very consistent about actually following the recipes.
ReplyDeleteThe ratios are SO genius! That's how people know how to cook--and I am enthralled. One can cook anything with those. You know my affection for the Blue Strawberry cookbook--it's the same thing.
ReplyDeleteAnd Julia is right, as always--without you, there's be un uprising around here, and we wouldn't even need yeast.
WHhch reminds me that once, so many years ago, we were on family vacation in Acapulco, and trying to make something from a cookbook in Spanish. The recipe called for a "gota" of this and three "gotas" of tht, and we could NOT figure out what a gota was. Turns out, it meant, essentially, "part."
ReplyDeleteAh HA. Ratios.
My mother did not use formal cookbooks. She enjoyed reading them and perhaps got some ideas from the recipes but never actually followed them as written. She was a cook by taste or how something looked and instinctively knew what ingredients and flavors went together. She would also try to duplicate dishes by guessing what was in them and then putting them together to see if she could recreate them. More often then not she was successful but occasionally there was something missing that she couldn’t identify.
ReplyDeleteShe was always up for a challenge in trying out new things. One time she made her own half sour pickles just to see if she could. She made her own coleslaw which was better than anything store bought as were her blintzes (similar to crepes) which were very labor intensive so she made four times the recipe and froze them. She did refer to the Manischewitz cookbook which she got as a giveaway from the company to get a sense of the proportions. The paperback is being held together by rubberbands now, but I still have it although I haven’t used it. I haven’t found any store or restaurant that can duplicate them.
At one time there were a number of food companies that offered free recipe books that included their ingredients and she acquired many of them from companies whose products she used and adapted for her own interpretations of the dishes. She wound up with a whole suitcase full of these which she eventually got rid of because she wasn’t using them and they took up a lot of space.
I still miss many of the dishes she made but I don’t think I would be able to make them the same way.
Good morning, Celia! Nice to see you back in your starring role here again. And thank you a million times for the ratio chart! That makes a huge difference to me, as someone who often takes recipes from iffy online sources. It's a good check for making sure something will work.
ReplyDeleteMargo, there have been three authors of various Joy of Cooking editions, all so very different. I have four editions (two were gifts), and my favorite are the last two authors, Ethan Becker and his mother, who was the daughter of the original author. There is so much kitchen intelligence packed into those books, they have become trusted old friends through the years. Plus, the authors are from my community!
The Betty Crocker cookbooks are my other go-tos. Time-tested recipes of classic dishes. As a microwaver from the mid-1970s, I use three microwave cookbooks a lot: the one that came with my first (massive) Amana microwave, Microwave Gourmet, and another one that has great recipes like Turkey Tetrazzini and other family faves.
And Celia, I can so identify with your enforced distance from a working kitchen. Not from cooking, but up until seven years ago I sewed every day of my life unless I was traveling, until we dismantled my sewing room prior to moving. I've never gotten my sewing mojo back, despite having a wonderful new sewing room as of last year. I hope your cooking mojo is just being a bit shy, and you'll be back to whipping up delicious goodies soon.
Delete