My name is Amanda Jelowicki, and I’d like to welcome you to my blog. I think it’s important to mention that I am not a trained chef, I don’t have a nutritional background, and I am essentially an amateur in the kitchen. My expertise lies in hard news journalism. I have over 20 years experience working in the fast-paced Montreal daily news world. I have covered countless elections at every political level, more murders than I care to remember, missing children who more often than not are never found, political scandals, and occasionally some heartwarming stories of people doing their best to help others. I love writing and storytelling, and for many years believed that was all I was ever good at. That being said, I’ve always loved cooking and entertaining, and am happiest when my house is full of people (guinea pigs!) who are trying out some of my new recipes, or eating some tried and true ones. I own around 50 cookbooks, and sometimes at night I will bring two or three to bed with me, and just flip through them looking for inspiration. I started having children almost a decade ago, and having five children almost back to back meant a lot of maternity leaves, and more free time to experiment in the kitchen.
Five years ago tragedy struck my family when my third son, Beckett, died suddenly and unexpectedly. It was a life-changing, horrific moment that forever changed me, and will never leave me. I had covered so many tragedies as a journalist up until that point, and suddenly the tragedy was mine, and it wasn’t a story I was writing, but it was all too real. In those first few months after he died, I was numb, and suffering from PTSD. I couldn’t ever be alone, and on almost a daily basis cooked out of the inability to sit and focus, and instead opened my door to countless guests who would come and visit. I think I really realized then how much pleasure cooking and entertaining gave me – I had a focus other than the tragedy in front of me, and I needed to be surrounded by the love of friends and family. To this day, whenever my family sits around our table, and especially whenever another family joins us, I always think of my son Beckett. My biggest failing as a cook I am always told is that I make too much food. In the back of my mind, i’m always making a little extra for my son Beckett, who I know is with me always.
I had two more children after Beckett died, so I have five children, four with me. Frazer, Toby, Beckham and Pippa have a love/hate relationship with my food – while they will always devour my pasta and tomato sauce, they will often crinkle their noses when I present them with a gouchangu chicken wings or a coriander-crusted chicken. Many recipes fail, but some are winners, and those are the ones I will publish on these pages. So many friends have asked for certain recipes over the years, so I am compiling them on these pages, partly for them, partly for me to remember what I actually make, and mainly for my kids, so they will have a living memory of my passion outside the news. So thanks for reading, and I welcome any feedback on this site. And always, have fun in the kitchen.