During the time of sheltering at home, many people are taking it upon themselves to use an unusual circumstance as an opportunity for growth.
Abby Kanakry, a right-side hitter on the Northern Kentucky University volleyball team, has decided to help turn her hobby of cooking and baking into a polished life skill. The Michigan native was named to the Horizon League’s All-Freshman Team last fall and helped NKU earn a trip to the NCAA Tournament.
Kanakry admits that she is fortunate to have grown up in a house where homemade meals are the norm. Her father, who travels often as part of his job, takes advantage of his globe-trotting to pick up spices and cooking inspiration from all over the world. “He doesn’t go off a recipe at all,” she said. “If I want to make something, I look it up and learn from there. But he can go with anything.
“Like last night, we wanted to do shrimp tacos, but he wanted an Asian twist, so he came up with his own blend of spices and mixed together some random things for a slaw.”
“Over Christmas Break, I watched Julie & Julia, one of my favorite movies,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to do something like that, develop cooking and baking. Then I looked up more; you can find any of the recipes online instead of just buying the book. It kind of starts with 20 different soups as the first thing you can do. I wanted to start by breaking it down and learning how to do each thing and take it from each category.
“So, I started with a creamy soup, and any time my dad makes dinner, I’ll make a sauce from the book. I haven’t gotten into any of the super complicated desserts yet, but I wanted to start with something.”
Though she’s learning to make more refined meals now, Kanakry has always enjoyed making her own food and refuses to be the stereotype of a college student living off packets of ramen noodles as she views cooking as another skill that needs to be developed in order to live on one’s own after graduation.
“Food was the most exciting part for me with going off to college,” she said. “I wanted to do everything the right way and not get into bad habits. After college, you’ll be living on your own and have to do everything yourself, but you’ll have even less time to do it.”
It was difficult when living in the dorms last year, as Kanakry had to carry trays of cookies to the basement in order to use the oven there, but her options opened up substantially when she moved into her own apartment at the beginning of this academic year.
She had already solidified her reputation as a bonafide baker with the team and coaching staff, but she’s used her passion for cooking to form even closer bonds with her fellow student-athletes. Kanakry said that during the spring season, Anna Burke and Anna Brinkmann would come over for a weekly get-together on Tuesdays, and on Sundays she would cook a meal for Reilly Briggs and women’s basketball freshman Carissa Garcia.
As she’s working her way through Julia Child’s cookbook, Kankary has her sights set on a few culinary goals. At the moment, she would like to master desserts like cream puffs, soufflés and macarons. She’s had success with macarons, but is motivated to improve the proper airy, chewy texture that is the trademark of the delicacy.
“Even if they taste right, I want to make sure I’m doing them absolutely right where they look right and have all the qualities that are supposed to be there,” she explained.
That attention to detail and desire to master her craft are also part of Kanakry’s plans for the future. She knows that she will not have as much time when she enters the workforce, which in her case is a goal of working in investigative accounting for the government.
So, while she has the time, Kanakry wants to not only learn the recipes that will be healthy, satiating and delightful to the palate, but make sure that she can do them properly and efficiently.
Kanakry is well on her way to becoming a successful home chef, and uses her own experiences to provide insight for those who want to develop better skills in the kitchen. Admittedly, she has a habit of second-guessing herself, and says that her tactic is to just keep cooking and do her research.
In short, she explains cooking in a way that can be applied to a variety of situations in life: “Just be prepared, and don’t freak out,” she said.
From NKU Athletics Communications