Cooking

I'm not really sure what to say in this cooking post, but decided that since it such a huge part of my life right now something should be recorded about it. So I guess I'll just start with a few bullets and see where that leads me.

~ I get bored of cooking the same thing all the time. I use the Internet for cooking nearly everyday to get ideas as to how to change things up so I'm more excited to cook. Lately I've searched for new recipes for old favorites: pancakes, spaghetti, tacos etc. Change is nice.

~I had the same small pepper container for probably 15 years. But since I've married Tom (6.5 years ago) I've gone through about 3 lbs of pepper. Not a joke. He loves pepper and I've learned to love it too. I'm pretty sure I was always afraid of it before because my dad always said pepper turns your stomach black. We've all got black stomachs around here!

~Homemade croutons are the bomb! Love this simple recipe.

~Tom used to make fun of a family who always had homemade hamburger and hot dog buns. So I found a recipe the other day and decided to make them for him. He's hooked so now he has to make fun of me!

~I probably make 2-5 new recipes a week.

~I can't ever follow a recipe exactly. I experiment too much. When it turns out good I can't usually recreate it. And sometimes it is a total flop!!!! It's also a problem because I don't know if the original recipe is any good. But I can't help myself.

~I love my bread machine. I usually make a loaf a day. Sometimes more. It's cheap, it's healthy and my biggest eaters love it. Because of it, we go through about 350 lbs. of flour a year. After I make a loaf, I slice it with an electric knife and store it in large ziplock bags in the freezer. That way we can take out only what we need for toast, sandwiches or snacks. Cache wants a bread machine to take to college. I don't blame him.

~My recipes are NOT organized. When I print them off, I put them in a folder. If I like them, the plan is to cut them out and put them in my box. But I haven't gotten around to that yet so my folder is bulging with papers in no logical order. I should set a goal.

~Breakfast is hard. I hate cold cereal so I have to cook. Coming up with what to make for breakfast every morning is one of my least favorite things. I need more good, easy, fast breakfast ideas. (Help!)

~With all this cooking there are loads of dirty dishes. I run the dishwasher at least two times a day. It makes me crazy to cook in a messy kitchen so I have to keep on top of the dishes and spills. (But that doesn't mean I'm perfect at it--far from it. Since it doesn't ever go away, I just have to keep at it.)