I have always loved to cook, especially savory dishes. I’ve never had to be a great baker of sweet confections because my grandmother had that all figured out, plus when I was younger, I didn’t have the patience for it. As I got older and got an apartment of my own across town, going to grandma’s for sweets wasn’t so convenient anymore, so I had two choices: 1) just store buy my way to sweet baked sensations or 2) Make them myself, which was pretty much out of the question for a young party girl. The only sweet loves that had the power to force out the measuring spoons and cups were banana pudding with scratch pudding, and sweet potato pie. These tasty deserts are two of my favs, and they are the ones that I refused to get from a store, plus I had a roommate who loved sweet potato pie. Can I just tell you that one day I made one, only to come home and discover that he had eaten my whole pie. When confronted, he smiled very innocently and said “I couldn’t help it, it was so good.” The mix of anger and flattery was a dangerous yet subduing combination. Lucky for him they were easy to make and my pride took joy in the ego stroking. So flash forward to my future where little extensions of Angelina and Lance exist. You’d think having kids would be enough to get me to bake, but nope, that didn’t do it either, we just purchased more eloquent brands of cookies. The kick in the butt I needed to get baking came from losing my job. When I was laid off from my job of eight years, we had just purchased a home just a few months before, and we had also gotten a new car, go figure! Anyway, we had to figure out how to cut financial corners, even the small ones because they too add up. With the kids, we were already shopping at a big wholesale food club. While we were saving on bulk items, we realized how little we were saving on baked goods. When it boiled down to it, a 5lb bag of flour, and 2 dozen eggs, with a 5 pound bag of sugar…, I could make 5 times the amount of sweet treats or breakfast muffins. So I took the plunge. I started calling granny and getting out of her every recipe I could. I started experimenting with her recipes, incorporating my own ideas into them, and after a while, I really started enjoying it. It’s been two years since I’ve started making things from scratch and the kids and my husband really enjoy it. I’m not an expert, and haven’t mastered everything, but darn it what I do make is good, and I’m willing to try and make anything. As far as my kitchen arena goes, I consider my cooking an informal process. You wont see pictures of fancy tableware, and linens, with special utensils and measuring items in my favorite color taken on my expensive camera (although, a camera wouldn’t be a bad idea). Remember, I lost my job, and I’ve got a family of seven, I don’t have a lot of time for fancy, but I do have time for taste. So if I am measuring out my dry ingredients in a plastic Tupperware bowl, don’t be alarmed, I am not tacky, I’m just frugal and using what I have. I don’t own a stand mixer (yet), so I’ll be putting in some good old fashioned muscle into my mixing, except when I’m using a hand mixer. I care more about the result than the pretty/not so pretty process getting there. I am however a “clean as I go” gal, so sometimes, I will have packed something up and forgotten to get a pic before I put it away. Sorry, I grew up in a messy kitchen, and I don’t like it (not judging). So if picture tutorials have a gap, you know why.
Now before we get into the recipes, there are two things you should know: my butter is usually melted, and salted, unless specifically designated otherwise. Feel free to trade melting for creaming your butter and sugar whenever you’d like, if it’s appropriate for the recipe, but come on, I challenge you, come on over to the dark… I mean brown butter side just once.
Sweet Recipes
Savory Recipes