Everyone cooks. Or, almost everyone cooks. Well, almost everyone has cooked at one time or another.
You are invited to cook signature dishes to share your own recipes at Ardenwoods. Checking in with the residents and staff at Ardenwoods Retirement Community is always fun. This time, the question put to the audience was, “What’s your signature dish?” A surprising number of people looked like they wanted to run away and answered with embarrassment that they don’t cook. It’s a good thing Ardenwoods has a great kitchen staff!
She Agreed to Cook Signature Dishes for Her Co-workers
Finally, we did find a few people who love to cook and have signature dishes in their repertoire. Ms. Donna Marie Nelson is famous for her cinnamon rolls and potato salad. She listed ingredients in her potato salad that make it so amazing and then she left out the secret ingredient! This quest for information was proving difficult. Here are some of the items in her potato salad:
- eggs
- celery
- onion
- radishes
- zucchini
- English cucumbers
- olives
- spices
- no salt
- potatoes (of course)
- secret ingredient
And, her cinnamon rolls? Donna Marie, a resident since 2014, is from Minneapolis where she worked for the Donalson Company for many years. Every year around Christmas, the company enjoyed an Eat-a-Thon from 7am-2pm. Each year she brought 4 dozen. They became so famous that the an email alert went out from the front office that Donna Marie was in the parking lot. She stopped having to carry them in herself after a couple of years.
Beyond the Eat-a-Thon, Ms. Nelson hosted a Christmas Brunch for her team every year. She had a very popular team (with a waiting list).
Today, Donna Marie still loves to bake and is always looking for and collecting new recipes. She has over 200 cookbooks, including the Twinkie Cookbook. Who knew?
Cook Signature Dishes Then Add a Dash of Humor
Other answers to the question of signature dishes include Noodles Marmaduke*, Broccoli Casserole, and Banana Pudding that’s made with ice cream. One answer was fabulous because it was delivered with a big smile, “I went to cooking school and since I came here I don’t have to do it anymore.”
And, for favorite cookbooks? Our Noodles Marmaduke* chef is a fan of the The Martini Cookbook with instructions including, “Don’t make this after 2 martinis.”
Whether or not cooking is your forté, most of us love to eat! Take a look at this list of idiomatic expressions involving food:
- have your cake and eat it too
- Drop like a sack of potatoes.
- Take it with a grain of salt.
- in a pickle
- two peas in a pod
- going nuts
- no use crying over spilled milk
- Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
- eating me out of house and home
- cream of the crop
- That’s the way the cookie crumbles.
- going bananas
- easy as pie
Just remember, The Proof is in the Pudding!
*Noodles Marmaduke was a new one so we had to get the ingredients. Here goes: hamburger, consumé, egg noodles, onion, mushrooms, sour cream.