Cooking and stuff

I really do like to cook and bake. I have not had much time for it for quite awhile, but I like to do it. Especially if I have enough ingredients on hand. It always bugs me when I find a great recipe that I really think I could make, only to discover that one or two ingredients are missing from my cupboards. So over the weekend I made a list of recipes for two weeks and when I bought groceries, made sure I had absolutely everything I would need for those recipes. I can't wait to get with it in the kitchen. So often I feel like my family deserves so much more than I give them - especially when I make something like a nice, hot, steaming bowl of . . . spaghettios. Know what I mean? I can do this. It just takes a little organization. And though I'm not predisposed to act in any kind of an organized way, I can discipline myself into it. I actually kind of enjoyed flipping through recipes and making a list of all the things I'd need. And I know I'll feel good about actually getting going in the kitchen. I like the process of cooking, although I am abstract-random in my approach. I am slow, un-methodical, messy, often befuddled and discombobulated, but I get the thing done. And I feel so good about the thing I have created, and feel that double-satisfaction when my family gobbles it all up. I'll let you know how it goes this week!

Today Chicken Nugget and I made some out-of-this world brownies. She loves to crack eggs and dump ingredients and stir stuff up. I like that it is something productive we can do together, and that it teaches her basic cooking and baking principles. I got to let her taste some bakers' chocolate today. She said she liked it, but I didn't believe her! I also let her taste some plain powdered sugar. I taught her what it meant to use "packed brown sugar," and how to make your own home-made glaze or icing. I was never interested in cooking when I was that age, so it amazes me how much she wants to do it herself.

At church tonight, I was teaching Mission Friends with my friend from Sunday School class. We were talking about food, etc., and I told her about the brownies. I said that I made them from scratch, and not from a box! My friend's eyes got wide with amazement, and she said, "How do you do that?!" She wanted to know what ingredients go into real-live, made-from-scratch brownies. I guess that baking from scratch, like letter-writing, is becoming a lost art.

By the way, D/S McNary, if you happen to be reading this, please e-mail Di's amazing Tarimisu recipe. Yum, yum.

I think I am going to try my hand at baking bread next. I've never, ever done that. Not the real, live yeast starter, knead and let rise, real-deal kind of breat. Any pointers from from-scratch veterans out there?