Welcome to OlverIndulgence, where our mission is to share our passion for food with the world! My name is Jason, and I discovered my love of food at a very young age…mostly the eating side of the equation. My mom was a fantastic cook, and when my sister and I would come in from playing outside (is that still a thing anymore?), our olfactory senses would often be treated to a fantastic surprise. I can still smell the aroma of a perfectly roasted chicken or the juiciest pot roast you could imagine. As a kid, I thought nothing of the work it took to make such things…I just wolfed them down and went straight for seconds.
As I grew older, however, she always challenged me to try new things. The discussion usually went like this (don’t pretend you haven’t “been there, done that” with this talk):
- Mom: “Try It.”
- Me: “No. I don’t like it.”
- Mom: “How do you know if you haven’t tried it?”
- Me: (Begrudgingly) “I don’t know.”
This exchange generally ended in the same way…with me trying something new. There were some things I didn’t like, but the more new things I tried, the more I realized I really liked them! My newly expanded palate in hand (so to speak), I would ask her to show me how to make such wonderful flavours, and she was more than happy to show me the way. She was a very experimental cook, and I think there was only ever one recipe in the house that she’d ever actually use (family tradition foods musn’t be toyed with), so it made it quite daunting for me. How in the world would I ever become semi-competent?
During one of the many cooking adventures we undertook together, she smiled and told me that all of the foods she’d “encouraged” me to try over the years had given me the familiarity with flavours I’d need to cook like her…to understand flavours and build.
I’ve found those words to be so true, and while there’s always good use for a well timed internet search for a new technique, a classic dish recipe, or to figure out what the heck to do with a funky new ingredient you bring home from the farmer’s market, the more that you experiment and make food your own, the more fulfilling it is!
Fast forward to 2019, and my amazing and very supportive wife (who gets taken on some food journeys that I’m surprised she puts up with!) encouraged me to share my love of food with the world and gave me this blog. I’m so lucky to have her in my life!
This blog will build off the philosophy of trying new things and “trial and error” type cooking. When I post recipes, I intend for them to be general guidelines that can and should be personalized to fit your own tastes. My goal is to offer suggestions for each dish to suit multiple different skill levels as well…because cooking should be something everyone can enjoy.
Since this is such a new blog, please keep checking back, as it will have fast and furious updates for the foreseeable future, as I try to make the posts on each page less sparse.
Follow us on Instagram @Olverindulgence, and if you see any old meals that you’d like posted on the blog, let me know! I’ll be sure to remake (with better pictures) and put them up! Looking forward to hearing from you!