About Me

I'll tell you a little about me.  I've been cooking since probably about the age of ten. I come from an Italian American family so needless to say but I'll say it anyway food is very important in my family. Pretty much all activities in the home center around food.

Right after high school I went to culinary arts school. I graduated with an associate's degree from one of our local community colleges. I had an absolute blast in cooking school with some amazing people and one absolute lunatic instructor dear Chef Bob. May he rest in peace. He was total fun and totally crazy. Someday I'll tell you about the wine tasting trip to the New York finger lakes. It was a  "pot full" of fun haha. 

Anyway, so after I graduated I got a job as a breakfast cook at a local diner. It was hell. I don't know what was worse getting up at 4 am (I am sooooo not a  morning person. I've often thought if I became a serial killer it would definitely be at night)  or trying to get this one fussy old man's dippy egg perfect every day. For those who do not know what a dippy  egg is I will do a video at some point. (yes it's an over easy egg. Don't spoil the surprise) haha

So I really wasn't happy working as a breakfast cook. I was 20 years old and bored. So I left the food industry and went on a series of boring, awful jobs from working in a sewing factory to taking dog bite reports at city hall. I worked in a shoe factory for 8 hours and quit that night, right after I had to take some guy to the emergency room for pulling his groin. Disaster.

Then I got a job as an activity assistant in a nursing home. I loved that job. It was quite fulfilling making the seniors happy. I learned so much from them as people do and can learn a lot from our seniors, if they are willing to listen. They are living voices of history but I also call them "the world's forgotten children". They are often ignored and forgotten. More on my nursing home career along with amazing stories in future blogs. Including the day I had a bat, yes a real bat, an adorable wonderful bat,  brought into the nursing home. What a fun day that was! 

So I then went on to be the activity director. In this role I not only got to use my cooking skills to make the residents happy I got to use my sense of humour and zest for life to make others feel like someone cared. This job would be the start of what has been my career for the last thirty years. I went back for my bachelor's degree in human development and family studies while working full time and taking care of my ill mom and her ill twin sister my aunt. Two of the best people ever born. In addition to my dad. More on my family in later posts. ;)

I then went from activity director to social worker and like a crazy person went back for a master's degree in Social Work. Again, working full time and still caring for my ill mom. My aunt had since passed by this point. 

 I obtained my master's degree in social work and then right after I graduated an opportunity opened up at our local hospital and I had to take it. It was more money and I had a massive student loan to pay for.  Leaving a job I loved after 17 years was exciting, scary and sad all together. I said goodbye to the residents and the nursing home and went to our local hospital to work. I've been there ever since. 

But I'm getting my itch for cooking back again. I find I'm coming full circle.  I'm enjoying making these videos and I've always enjoyed cooking.  It hasn't been a very joyful last 12 months for all of us has it?  So enough sadness, let's move into the darkness! haha *insert Vincent Price Laugh*

To Be A Goth

So now let's talk about the Goth part. My work colleagues know I'm a Goth. They sort of know what we are but maybe not completely. Believe it or not Wikipedia has a pretty good description of what a Goth is. 

The first question I always get asked is "Are you a Satanist?" Ummm, no. I am not. However, there are Goths who are. In fact there are Satanists who are not Goths too. 

Another question "what's with the black all the time? You always look like you are going to a funeral?"  My response? "I'm going to be going to yours if you keep asking me that!" No but seriously, we just like black. I always have. In fact I tell people I was a Goth before I knew I was a Goth. 

Story time: when I was about eight years old my second cousin who was my father's first cousin died very young. She was only 24 years old. She was a very brittle, bad diabetic. So my father took me to her funeral. And of course as a curious eight-year-old usually does I had a lot of questions. "Daddy why isn't she moving?" And he would whisper to me "because she's dead were at a funeral don't be talking so loud." "Well why isn't she moving I don't understand--* poke poke poke poke*." "Don't do that! Don't be poking at her that's disrespectful." So my father took me home, I went to bed and the next day I went to school. About half way through the school day the principal called my mother and he said to her "Is everything okay at the house are there any problems at home."  And my mother said, "why are you asking me this? What did she do?"  He said "well, she's been drawing pictures of people in coffins all day long so I was concerned that there was some things going on at the house." My mother sighed and said  "No, everything is okay. My husband took her to a funeral last night and that's all she's been doing is drawing pictures of people in coffins and talking about death." So I was fascinated with death and things that most eight-year-olds were not really fascinated with. In fact while everyone was listening to The Bay City Rollers I was listening to Led Zeppelin. Not many 8 year-olds listen to Zep. haha Of course it probably didn't help That my mother took me to see The Exorcist back in 1973. I think I was the only kid who went to see that too. And then of course two years later she took me to see Jaws. So who knows. Was that the Catalyst to all of this? Which came first? The Goth or the Goth ways?

Anyway so in answer to the big questions what is a Goth basically that's what it is we like darker things we like dark colors we like dark makeup we like Dark Art, dark music (although I have very eclectic taste in music from Zeppelin, to The Cure to yes even Disco....yes I'm an embarrassment to my Goth friends).  We like odd things. We like things that most people might not find fascinating or beautiful. 

Story Time Again: My better half and myself went to the Mutter museum in Philadelphia. It is a museum of  medical Oddities not seen pretty much anywhere else in the world. I absolutely love that museum. Probably the only place in the world where you can find a giant dried megacolon on display. Yes, some dead guys massive intestine. 

As we were walking out of the museum we went to the gift shop.  I saw a book in the gift shop filled with post mortem photos. Now "normal" people, and I put normal in quotes, would probably not find a book of what is basically dead people in photographs beautiful or fascinating. But I beg to differ. I find it incredibly beautiful and why I find it beautiful is because the photographs were taken in the 1800s at a time when having a photograph taken was very expensive. Since many people died at a very young age, especially a lot of babies, families would be devastated.  But a saving grace when this would happen, is the family would go to a professional photographer and have one last photograph taken including the dead person. What is more beautiful than that? One of the things we cherish the most are photographs, especially of people who are no longer with us.

 So that is a little bit about me. I'll share more stories more recipes and maybe this old Goth will give you a laugh or two, and at a time when there is not much fun in the world, I would say that's a precious thing. Thanks for reading and stay with me on the journey. xoxo