adventures in the kitchen
Saturday, April 5, 2008
First post on the new blog :)
Per my mom's request, I've established a new blog to document my kitchen adventures. (This way I can continue to use babywill.net as an online baby book for Will--I really do want to get it printed and bound one day for him). I don't know how frequently I'll post on this site, but promise to share great recipes when I find them!
A little background on when/why I developed a love for baking & cooking: I was fortunate to grow up around the majority of my extended family, all of whom seem to share a love for creating delicious meals in the kitchen! Mam Maw (my great-great-grandmother who lived with us for a while and passed away when I was a senior in high school) made excellent spaghetti, which, until I was in elementary school, I lovingly referred to as "sketti." Nanny (Mam Maw's daughter, my great-grandmother, who passed away in March 2008) made the best hickory nut cake you've ever tasted. Grammy Jean (Nanny's daughter, my dad's mother, my grandmother) is famous, at least in our circle of friends and family, for her celestial chicken and congo squares. Granny Barry (my mom's mother, my grandmother) is the queen of country cooking and can also make some delicious shrimp dishes. My parents, Jim & Marsha, are the epitome of hospitality and often treat guests to anything from apple pie to Parmesan zucchini (and everything in between). My uncle Jerry and cousin Holly (dad's side of the family) watch cooking shows every chance they get and always delight us with new dishes at family gatherings (my favorite is still the key lime turkey that we had for Thanksgiving a few years ago). My Uncle Bill (mom's sister's husband) makes delicious sausage bread, which he always prepared for us on Christmas morning.
As I've gotten older, I've been fortunate to learn from other great cooks: my mother in law makes delicious meals for every meal (seriously, I gain weight every time we spend a few days with them!), my college friend Brandie R. could give Martha Stewart a run for her money (she's the one I e-mail with baking-related questions), my dear friend, Winnie, who I met when I worked in an office with her husband (she would often send yummy treats to the office with Jake), my younger sister, Katy, has become quite the great cook and is always trying new recipes, my sister-in-law, Leah, is a fabulously creative baker and my sister-in-law, Paige, has lots of great health-conscious recipes that use all types of fresh produce.
Well, there you have it; those "mentors" helped develop my love affair with food!
I also have a few rules of thumb when it comes to my own baking:
1. I always use real butter
2. Good bakeware is a MUST (for stove top cookware I prefer stainless to non-stick because I don't want to have to worry about the non-stick coating scratching off)
3. Real vanilla is also a MUST when baking (it's expensive in the US, so if you or anyone you know is going to Mexico any time soon, get some there. It's around $15 for half a gallon!)
4. Always wear a super cute apron
5. Have fun!
I'll close with a funny story that I remembered a couple days ago while cooking something that called for "soda." One time, when I was in 5th or 6th grade, I decided to make sugar cookies. The recipe called for "soda," which I just assumed meant some type of soda drink. Since they were sugar cookies I opted for Sprite, because I didn't want the Coke to make the cookies dark. Needless to say, they didn't turn out that well. Not terrible, but certainly not good. I couldn't figure out what I had done wrong, so I told Mam Maw everything I had used just to see if I had left something out. Apparently what I had left out was baking soda! She and I laughed for a really long time about that one!
Happy baking :)
Posted by kristy ::
10:32 AM ::
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