The first version of this piece was originally posted on my old site, which is now defunct. I felt this had a better place here than on any of my main sites as for now.

When I moved here I had a small side business that I quite enjoy doing when it comes up. It is catering. It is pretty easy to do for me, to plan and organize events like that and I quite like doing it. It is not so much me working in the kitchen and doing everything that I can do the best, but getting everything rolling and still doing some of the cooking things myself is my favourite thing.

When I’m home I bake an insane amount of cookies. Craig takes them to school, or the twins take them to the nursery. We take them to Church and to community events. And my neighbours buy them off me by the dozen. It is a very exciting things, when the wealthy neighbours who could buy the expensive (and very yummy) cookies that are sold at the grocery store come to me and offer to pay more per piece than the professionally done and marketed cookies. Not that I actually charge that much, but I love the little extra I can save for fun, or for school supplies or even some seafood!

With all the cooking shows on television these days, I have met some different kind of people who cook and can share tricks and tips. There is Jamie Oliver, and Keith Floyd and the two fat ladies, the former news anchor, the chef and the actor together. What I don’t really like in these shows that they always rely on the most well-equipped kitchens and many times on pre-prepaired veggies and stuff. That alone often makes me frustrated, because when they say the preparation time is 20 minutes it takes me around two hours just to chop some veggies! Even with using the very limited modified equipment everything takes a lot longer for me and it often becomes really frustrating. I think I made my point about how frustrating it all can be!

I’d love to see Jamie Oliver have a cooking show when he cooks with some people with
disabilities. There would be a lot of people interested in that, too. I mean using a kitchen can b a challenge to someone who has control of his rms and hands but uses a wheelchair. Not to mention someone, who has limited use of their arms/hands! Or an upper limbs amputee… or a blind person. I think I could learn a lot more from them now than from any celebrity chef. I can read and usually recipes are quite easy to follow, but I have no idea how to chop tomatoes. Well, I know. I ask Kevin to do it, but that is not always an option.

One of the things I have learnt about cooking is that the key is not giving up. Yesterday I
finally gathered my courage to go to the kitchenette at the end of the corridor and to my
surprise I found a grill oven and some burners that are quite low, so I can use them as well. Since Kevin was coming to bring me some clean clothes and a book or two I made a very yummy omelette for him. The onions weren’t finely chopped, the bacon wasn’t thin enough, the mushrooms were rather oddly shaped, but it still tasted great and Kevin ate it all.

And I didn’t need Jamie Oliver for it.