Made From Scratch...

If you know me well, you know that the kitchen and I aren't as familiar with each other as we should be.  A good week I cook 4 nights. A normal night I cook once.  I try but, hey, somethings are easier left up to others to prepare.  But as part of my New Year's goals of "Making an Effort" (my mantra for the year) I have been working on all aspects of my homemaker and Motherhood skills.  In the past week, however, it is like I got a jolt of determination to do things better.

I love my friend Christy's cooking blog- The Girl Who Ate Everything. Christy and I have known each other since middle school (and I wish my scanner was working so I could put an embarrassing photo on here), and I love that we both have 3 boys. So, if she says her boys ate something I know mine will.  She gives me the guts to try things I normally wouldn't, and just last week I tried 3 of her recipes for dinner- which were all big hits! I made the Poppy Seed Chicken, the Pizza Rolls, and even put my own spin on her Italian Chicken (we call it Beach Chicken). You've got to check her out. Trying things like this is a huge step for someone who gags when they touch raw chicken, or browns beef for tacos (ahem, gag..someone like me).

And, as an added bonus of trying so many new recipes, I found it very necessary to organize and make a list of my spice cupboard. So, no more hunting for Celery Seed or a bay leaf, I know right where it is!  Yeah for clean cupboards. I also saw a cute idea for vinyl to go inside a cupboard door with measurement conversions, and that I want to do maybe along with a list of spices...Hmmmmm.  I even had to replenish my supply of flour, sugars and the like! I'm telling you, I've upped my game big time.

A week or so ago, in causal conversation, having nothing what-so-ever to do with baking, Rusty mentioned that when he was growing up he always thought his wife would make the best cinnamon rolls. He didn't mean it in a negative way at all, but still it left me thinking. Had I ever even tried to make cinnamon rolls all on my own? Nope. Not once.  Cookies, yes. Brownies, yes. So, I enlisted every great baker I know to ask for tips and recipes. Lucky for me, my friend Verlinda was in town visiting her daughter Janae.  I had made a number of treats off their family recipe blog so I thought I'd ask her about making rolls.  Well, I got more than that. I got Verlinda and Janae in my kitchen to walk me through making them from start to finish!

(Prior to the icing, I was so proud I couldn't wait for them to cool to photograph them-- and by no means is this a foodie blog, so if you wanna see what they look like all gussied up and plated, well, sorry. I'd rather eat them!)

I didn't tell Rusty my plans, and when he came home he was very surprised. Better yet that he LOVED them. In case I wasn't convinced he ate four. I was so excited!  Thanks 'Nonna' and 'Nae"! Especially thanks to Nae for playing playdough with Berk while we slaved away!

Actually, he liked them so much that Saturday I made them again, all on my own. They didn't turn out as pretty, but they are still all gone.The boys had a ball 'helping' me, and the inches of four on the floor served as proof. Thanks to my neighbor Mendy for helping me figure out what I did wrong. She is my official taste tester and willing offered to eat them even though they were flat. Thanks for taking one for the team to help out my baking skills.

Well, my birthday is a week away, and now that I'm  "Making an Effort' in the kitchen I thought I'd throw a Kitchen Aid on my birthday list-- just for fun. Just to show you how serious I was about actually thinking I'd get one, it appeared on the list right before Nanny.  And yes, I made it ten years of marriage with a hand held Black & Decker mixer, if that shows you how much I used it...Sooooo, Sunday night we had my birthday dinner with Rusty's parents (who'll be out of town for the actual day) and I got to open my gift early. Needless to say I was shocked and SO excited and grateful that they got me my Mixer!!!

So, to break in my Kitchen Aid, I enlisted Christy's blog again and made these yummy cookies! I loved being able to change the speeds and know what I was doing.  You have to make these cookies. The dough alone was delish! Tomorrow, I am trying bread. Fingers crossed. One of the rarely mentioned bonuses to living in Arizona is that everything rises fast here, just put it in your garage and it comes up in no time! So, I hope I can swing it. And don't mind my messy counter tops in all the photos, my house was clean yesterday, I swear.

Feel free to send me any of your favorite cooking blogs, I bet I check them, but the family cooking blogs always have the tried and true stuff on em.