I think it's safe to say that Slashfood readers like food, and for the most part, like making it. But do you consider yourself a cook? And, more specifically, if that answer is yes -- what made you decide that you were one?
When I went to one of my local farmers' markets over the weekend (where I found the shaker pitcher), I was there for something specific -- elk bones. See, I'd made a brown stock eons ago, but it didn't turn out so well, so I wanted to try again. When one of my elk guys, John Rietkerk of Second Wind Elk, gave me a recipe for elk stew over the summer, I wanted to try it from scratch. There was no way I'd buy some local elk and then destroy it with boxed stock, so I asked him about elk bones.
Fast-forward a couple months, and I found myself walking through the market with a HUGE box of elk bones. Free. It was a revelation for two reasons. One: It taught me the benefit of talking to your food producers. I have enough bones to make a number of quarts of stock, and it'll only cost me the vegetables I have to use. Second: I felt like a real cook. I wasn't only toiling with a recipe or buying better equipment -- I was getting a huge box of bones from my supplier, so to speak. My food passion suddenly seemed all the more real.
Those bones above are my turning point, but what about you? What marks your changes in culinary efforts?
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