Cook & Ladder Company No. 1: A Firehouse Cookbook

A cookbook for the house or the firehouse, comprised of recipes developed over a 25+ year career as a Firefighter. My first several years I was on the department I had the good fortune to work with some of the best cooks our department has seen. I was able to learn from them a style of cooking I was not familiar with, cooking from scratch with some short cuts along the way. For a number of years, I was the designated cook for the various stations I was assigned to. Once I became the designated cook, I developed themes for each day for one of the meals. I then left the other meal open for whatever was on sale, or whatever I felt like cooking that day. Sunday became Sugo Sunday (Sugo being the Italian for gravy, American Italian for tomato sauce), followed by Meatloaf Monday, Taco Tuesday, Wing Wednesday, Tot Waffle Thursday, Fish Friday (or Fajita Friday when I worked with someone that didn’t like seafood), and Pizza Saturday. I have multiple recipes for each day’s theme, making the decisions at the store easier first thing in the morning while keeping a variety for the guys (and gals) that I was feeding. Although I greatly enjoy cooking, I don't like to do recipes that are too complicated, so my recipes are very simple to make.