Cooking Experiments

     I spent most of the afternoon in the kitchen.  This is nothing new, I usually spend all day in the kitchen, as it is warmer than it is in our room.  However, today I spent most of my time in the kitchen actually cooking.  don't get me wrong, I love to cook, I just hate cooking to a deadline (like dinnertime) so I love making desserts and cooking in the middle of the day so that everything has plenty of time, no one is waiting on me to finish, and I don't have to spaz out when ever anyone walks through the kitchen (just on the off chance that they might be coming to judge or nag (stress makes me a not so nice person).)

     I don't really have a full story line to share, so I thought I would just share pictures of some of the food and messes that I made.  The dish that was the biggest hit with the family is, of course, the one I don't have a picture for. So use your imagination here for a moment. I made the Cheesy Potato Soup from the Farm Chicks cookbook, and it was amazing! It was thick and creamy and delightfully cheesy. If I hadn't already recommended the book, I would throw it at people just for this one recipe.

     For all you Red Hot and Blue fans, I think I have managed to copy their famous Cinnamon Butter! I took a stick of butter (softened) and mixed in two generous spoonfuls of cinnamon sugar.  That wasn't quite right, so I added more cinnamon (a very generous dash) and then some more.  (Sorry this is so imprecise) Then I just took a fork to it and stirred the living daylights out of it.  (Basically mix butter, cinnamon, and saucer (quantities in that order) until it tastes right.)

     The husbandman makes fun/scolds me for using practically every dish in the kitchen when I cook. Sadly, this is very true.  These are just the dishes that I used to make my pie filling.  Not the whole pie, not the whole dinner, just the pie filling. However, in my defense, my parents have a dishwasher and since he's not having to wash all my dishes like he did in the old apartment (one of us cooked, the other cleaned up afterwards) I don't see what the big deal is. Having a dishwasher is a wonderful thing that I never thought I would be without.  Being without one is not nice, but that is a rant for another night.

Before

       The thing I'm proudest of though, is my pie.  (Another reason to run out and buy the Farm Chicks cookbook.)  I have made pies before, but my mom was always right there (usually making one of her own) to help me with everything.  Tonight, she was still at school, and I had to figure it out on my own.  And I did!! It turned out wonderfully (in fact my dad just come downstairs just to tell me how good it was.) The crust was simple to work with, it didn't fall apart or refuse to roll, and yet it baked up light and flakey. I have sucessfully made a pretty, tasty, fromstrach pie!  (It was a cherry pie in case anyone wondered, we still have sour cherries coming out of our ears from last fall's harvest.) 

After!