My Kitchen is where I Whisk and Dine, tell stories, and sometimes allow the public media a visit into my fascinating world!
When asked, by PBS during the vetting process to film in The Great American Recipe, ‘where do I whisk and dine’, I was eager to invite them into my kitchen, if only through visual storytelling!
The art of visual storytelling means something different to each of us that claims ourselves a visual artist.
For me, the most colorful subject to claim for my artistic endeavors, has often been food.
While it hasn’t been limited to food, as in – the developing of recipes – it is the most universal language, and therefore easy to speak with.
However, being a bit of a ‘Jack of all Trades’, or rather a ‘do-it-yourselfer’, setting the stage for my food creations, also involves more that just pretty plates.
And so, I’ve utilized many of my skills, from Playing In The Dirt (growing much to cook with), hauling in my seamstress skills, to my film/techie skills.
My Kitchen
Like all home cooks, our kitchen is an intricate aspect of our daily life.
It’s where we ‘make love’, as in… cooking for those we love.
It is the most personal aspect of ‘expressing love’ on a daily basis, even though it can often seem like work.
While this is true of my kitchen, my poor kitchen is now on steroids!
I use my kitchen for the everything from the simplest of daily cooking to massive undertakings for a large gathering.
I also use my kitchen to film cooking videos, for over 400 recipes I’ve created, and the visual stories about dining with friends and family.
My Kitchen Has Two Faces
Many years ago, when I began sharing my art in media format, my kitchen was no longer that kitchen most families have in their home.
My storytelling kitchen adopted two faces, one for the camera, as you can see in the sizzler trailer I filmed The Camera Eats First, to my ‘off camera’ kitchen.
An ‘on camera’ kitchen requires lots of props, stage setting if you will.
Fortunately for me, I discovered a hidden talent my husband of ten years had, I never knew existed – Painter!
Since the onset of the pandemic, hubby began painting props for my film work, have a look for yourself!
The Multi Task Kitchen
In nearly every kitchen I have had, throughout most of my adult life, I have considered the kitchen to be my office, my work place, as well as my escape from a busy world, so I can just be with me.
Since I became a food blogger, my kitchen became something more than a place to cook meals. It became my personal film studio and the place where I became a visual storyteller.
Everything I need to cook, just about anything my heart desires, is in my kitchen, and then a lot of things I never thought I would need in a kitchen.
Where To Dine?
With a creative mind, anywhere in the home can become a place to dine!
Outdoors, certainly has its possibilities; a deck, a patio, spread a blanket under a tree.
But indoors also has lots of possibilities, and no, I don’t mean to limit to the kitchen, dining table or to dine in front of the tv.
Take a look at some of these fun ideas I’ve created for Valentines Dining At Home.
The Kitchen The Film Studio
It was around 2015 that I began to dabble with food blogging. By 2016, I had been invited to do my first Food Network show, Clash of The Grandmas.
By the end of 2018, I had been asked to do two more Food Network shows, Family Food Showdown, and Guy’s Grocery Games.
I even filmed my first ‘self-production’ of a short multi-episode series with a good friend who is also a food blogger, and called it Peas and Carrots.
Since she and I are so different in the way we cook, yet so alike in our passion for cooking, Peas and Carrots was a perfect name for us.
It was during those early days of combining food and film, and before many of the phone and camera gadgets we have now.
I found myself adding one more element to my kitchen; My Garage!
Tools, Tools And More Tools
As recent as only six years ago, the most important tools I used in my kitchen were a knife, a whisk and a cutting board, sometimes an electric appliance, like my food processor.
Now, it seems, the tools I need are often taken from the tool box in my garage; clamps, wires and various types of tweezers used for jewelry making and crafting, only now they are used to place food on a plate!
What took the darn gadget industry so long to make tripods to hold a camera or phone directly over a work area?
How many times did I fear my phone would drop into a bowl of batter or a pot simmering on the stove?
Whew, it never did but I’ll tell you, I sure became good at wiring my phone in the weirdest places, then using a mirror to see where the darn ‘record’ button was!
The Art Of Dining
Cooking, recipes, cooking, recipes; for me, is not the reason I became a food blogger. DINING, was the reason!
When I was growing up, my mom was the most amazing cook around! I am (to this day), certain it is what sealed the marriage deal with my father.
He had never eaten food as fabulous as my mom’s cooking.
But as incredible a cook as my mom was, food was always served family style; you know, large plates, sometimes the pan the meal was cooked in. Not pretty.
Then, as a young adult, I became aware of what fine dining looked like. Maybe the food wasn’t the best, but presentation sure caught my eye.
I wanted to fuse the two; food and presentation, whisking and dining.
Throughout all of my blog, Instagram and Facebook posts, I hope you will be inspired to fuse both food and presentation too.
It is how the name for my blog was born. Whisk and Dine!
I believe the table... that place that draws people to gather, is the most powerful symbol of togetherness. All that happens before the table is set, the planning, the gathering, the preparing, are all an intricate part of the dance that create the mood of celebration to share with friends and loved ones.