I often think about new recipes and how I can make things better. Now my family loves almost everything that I put on their plates and even the little ones eat their veggies when I cook them . But I have been trying out tons of recipes from several sites that I love to read and look at...and I can say that these recipes have rocked our world. I thought that my little recipe box was full of awesome works that I had created. But nothing prepared me for what I found on these sites. Some were fancy and required things that I didn't have but I used things that I had (a trick I learned from my Grandma). I swear I never remember her using a rolling pin ever (but I can't make a pizza crust without one) ...but that didn't make her pie crusts any less delicious.
So I have decided that since I don't have a food processor, or a awesome mixer that can make cakes, and crusts and more I should still try making those recipes with what I have. Maybe stop buying premade doughs and use the knowledge of what I had growing up to make those things again. There is nothing wrong with using store bought items and I am not bashing them at all...in fact they have helped me make some awesome dishes...but my hubby told me the other day, after I mentioned I wanted to make a cake from scratch, that he missed all the from scratch stuff I used to make. He missed the cookies, the thin crust pizzas and all that so I decided that I am going to every once in awhile pull out the flour and butter and my hand held mixer and use them again.
I have used them recently but mostly for store bought cake,brownie and pizza crust mixes...so now I am going to try to get some new from scratch things and have the kiddos help me make them. I do miss cooking with them, and when school starts it always seems like the day is so short that we don't get to do all the fun things that we do in the summer. I haven't made cupcakes since September. And that is just not right! Especially since I have been craving cupcakes, and hate store bought ones. I just don't like store bought icing maybe that is why I don't like store bought cakes and such...well not all stores, Lunds/Byerlys has always been able to draw me in every once in awhile.
And I think I will start posting pics of my recipes and things I have tried although I hate my kitchen, and one day hope to win a million dollars just to have a "real" kitchen that I can use and be proud of. But the reason why I think I should do it is because I love my food creations. And I am happy to make things for my family and I look at some many awesome kitchens and think wow I bet they make awesome food in there...but no one seems to post the not so cute pics of their not so perfect kitchens. I wish I would have been wiser when selecting my house at 24 and knew that my kitchen would not be as satisfying although it was 3 times larger than our apartment's kitchen...oh if I would have known how quickly I would be unsatisfied with not having more counter space when it came to cooking and how my kitchen table would have to serve as a counter on most days...But oh well I won't complain too much. I just know now that once we sell this house and move on, the kitchen will be the first thing I consider in the new house, and bathrooms/bedroom ratio will come next! But that's off topic....
I think that what makes a person a great cook, is the ability to keep learning, keep trying new things and of course to experiment with everything that you can. No one taught me how to cook but I learned from doing! So now that I going to have 4 children sooner than later, I am going to start finding ways to stretch our dollars more and learn new recipes in the process.
So my challenge for bloggers is to try out a new recipe and post it and give a review of it. I am going to try to do this once a week. I love this idea! Let's get cooking!!
