I remember sitting in my grandmother’s kitchen as she cooked for Sunday dinner from time to time! I would watch as she hardly ever used recipes and accurate measurements, but somehow her entrée’s always came out so delicious! My uncles always held down the outdoor cooking such as BBQ’s and such! So it was natural for me to take in this talent (as well as my love for Music) and just throw down! My
grandmother passed away and the next 5-7 years were a blur but I remember 3 things; 1. The video games I was playing & 3. The food that I loved!! My (Other) Grandmother Maw Maw Lane and her mother Granny Ginney Mae Mathews were so cold in the kitchen! I mean I would look in the fridge and see nothing I could microwave but let one of these women walk in there…. You would see some meat smothered in gravy and rice or mashed potatoes with gravy and homemade biscuits from scratch and I mean from the flour to the pan my friend! I wanted to cook like that!! My mother was and still is a great cook as well!! I love her breakfast the best! But Diabetes has her eating very strict and healthy! Some of her dishes while still very good are well…. I don’t mind! My mother cooking for me is one of the reasons I make the 5-6 hour trip to Fort Worth, TX as often as I can (The other being my Daughter Destini) However as a youth I mean I could make a mean Cheese Burger but that was for my own enjoyment!! Ok back to the origins!! I went to Wichita Northwest High School when I really wanted to go to Heights or South East so therefore my motivation for high school was well shot!! So that summer after felling summer school because I felt that my job at M.C. Donald’s was more important than Romeo and Juliet I was sent to Flint Hills Job Corps in Manhattan, KS! There under the watchful eye of the Late Great Joyce Jacobs-El She taught me proper kitchen techniques and knife skills as well as basic skills needed to function in any kitchen! I’m not quite Bobby Flay, but I could most def be one of his Prep Cooks!! I actually had the chance to attend advance training at the Treasure Island Job Corps in San Francisco, California, but I declined because I was so homesick a decision I later regretted due to the job market! I got a job in Sidney, Nebraska as the Head cook at Memorial Health Center under the eye of Oliver M. A German born, New York Raised master chef that moved to the small town because his wife well….. MADE MORE MONEY THAN HE! He showed me some ill skills and allowed me to experiment with more advance dishes!! Like for instance we made Prime Rib for the residents for Thanksgiving that year… While costly was very delicious!! Just in case you don’t know where Sidney, NE is this is a small town with about 10 black people in it at the time! I could not commit a crime there if I wanted to!! It is bad when the Mayor, chief of police, hospital manager, and everyone important there knew you by name!! Yeah I stayed in the kitchen!! It was safe!! I relocated back to Wichita to attend Wichita State University in 2001 where I basically partied and hung out for 4 semesters! I worked a lot of 9-5’s and just watched as time passed! After the whole DRAMA with Customer Service gigs I found myself at “The Right Thing” a place that did residential services for the less functioning persons as I like to say! It was a gig and it was easy! Cook, clean & paperwork! Well the Cooking part was like riding a bike very simple! I would make these massive meals that my client would gobble up! My food list every week was big, plentiful and Cheep (Being that we only had $50 cash to work with every week as well as $200 in Food Stamps he got that we has to stretch for the month! The meals were very fancy and I didn’t really notice until my boss came over to have dinner with us! She thought I was only cooking like that because she was there, but my Client was used to getting an appetizer with a main and desert! She watched as I created the meals and was in awe as I sautéed, chopped and whatever other lingo cooks use to make simple foods sound good! She ate her food (Which BTW was Spinach Salad, Sweet Burban Chopped Steak with Mashed Potatoes and Country sausage gravy w/ green beans and sweet butter rolls with Chocolate Pie for Desert! She was talking to me as I cleaned the kitchen after and asked “Why are you here?” I thought I did something wrong. “I like this job!!” I said nervously as I tried not to make eye contact with her. She replied “I meant why you aren’t on a cruise ship? This is the best meal I have had at any of our houses!! You are skilled beyond your years… You really need to become a Chef!” I honestly hate when people say that!! I don’t want to be a chef! This means I have to work at some stuck up ass restaurant with some master chef that thinks his dishes are million dollar gifts from god!! But as a fellow culinary person, I understand the seriousness of your personal specialties! Thus the reason I don’t want to work in someone else’s kitchen! I am my own person and I like the way I cook! Fast forward I am currently 3rd shift at the Wichita Children’s home in the BRIDGES Phase 1 Program as a Life Skills Coach! I work at night so I don’t get to spend as much time with the kids as I would like to, but in the last 4 months I have become the “SUNDAY DINNER COOK” there!! I prep and cook all through the night so that the boys I work with can have a delicious family style meal for Sunday dinner! It is to the point where my boss has even gave me a $50 a week budget for these meals as well as free reign in the kitchens!! I take this seriously! Like it is my own restaurant! I love cooking for them! My main reason for this page is because I always get this “PLEASE CAN YOU POST THE RECIPE MARLON??” I normally say no cause a lot of it is on the fly! Like I never use instant gravy mix and I try to make everything from scratch! But I decided that hey I should make my delicious ideas available for all to enjoy!! So here is the Plan!! I will Post and REPOST Recipes I find Wonderful as well as my own creations! I will try to squeeze in a video or two every week on my YouTube Channel but for the most part this will be a Facebook thing! We will see where it goes!! So without further wait….. LET’S EAT!!!
