Welcome!

For as long as I can remember I have loved food.  I grew up rather poor and by poor I mean we lived in a trailer out in the middle of nowhere and butchered our own cow in our kitchen one winter when were especially broke.  As a little girl I used to sit and read my mom's cookbooks, and by read I mean look at the pictures and tell her what I thought looked yummy and what I would love to learn to make but as I mentioned, we were too broke to afford the things I wanted to make.  Even at the tender age of 5 or 6 I had an eye and a desire for the finer things and still do, ask my husband!  I begged my mom for many years to teach me how to cook but before I learned how to cook I use to mix my mom's spices to "see what would happen." I still, to this day, have no idea what I thought would happen but I was insistent on doing it, no matter how much it cost her and she still loves me just the same!  At the age of 8 she decided I was ready to learn, or she got tired of me asking but either way she taught me how to make pancakes and boy did I learn.  I begged to make them every chance I got and I not only memorized that recipe, I perfected those pancakes and I couldn't wait to learn more.  I moved on to bigger and better things as time went on, well bigger things to an 8-9 year old, bigger things like cookies, brownies, and this delectable Devil's Food cake that I swear no one but my mom can make, well with any great taste that is!


At the age of 10 I started cooking for the entire family, most of the time I had no idea what I was doing but with God's graces it was edible.  The perfectionist in me never allowed me to be satisfied with just mediocre or boring or just edible, even if it was meat loaf I made it, and I made it well! I read, I studied, I yearned for more and at 12 I decided I wanted to learn how to decorate cakes.  After I had memorized and mastered my mom's brownie recipe and her chocolate chip cookie recipe, I decided I wanted to make stuff look pretty too.  Every year I decorated my brother's birthday cakes with nothing more than a boxed cake, tube gel icing, and a can of frosting.  It looked like a 12 year olds art project but it was a start, my start.


As I got older I continued to cook dinner for our family and bake when I had the chance.  At around 13-14 I had a desire to "start" or "make" a holiday tradition. I first started with gingerbread, hoping to make a gingerbread house every year.  I quickly learned that it wasn't worth the time and effort to make an entire gingerbread house from scratch because no one would eat it anyway. I made Christmas cookies, but everyone makes Christmas cookies, bor-ing! I then came across a cinnamon candy recipe and I said, "THIS IS IT!" My first attempt resulted in evacuating the house and airing it out in 30 degree weather.  The fumes from the cinnamon oil were enough to kill a cat and but the candy came out perfect! My mom and I agreed it could've used a little more cinnamon oil but my brother thought it was perfect.  So every year, well almost every year, since then I have made cinnamon candy at Christmas time, two batches, one for my brother and one for the rest of us.


Throughout my teenage years I continued to cook for my family.  At the age of 18 I moved out on my own and still cooked as though I were feeding an army, old habit I guess, but it made friends happy because I was always feeding them.  At 19 I moved in with my then-boyfriend, now-hubby and he had cable!!! Poor people, like myself, had 2-3 channels depending on the weather and a 10" black and white TV.  This was groundbreaking!  I fell in love with Food Network and I became re-inspired by the chefs I watched.  I became enamored with Ace of Cakes and envied Chef Duff.  I expressed my interest in cake decorating and my hubby scored me Wilton cake decorating classes at Michael's.  I completed their first class on Decorating Basics but life got in the way and I didn't take any more classes.  But Food Network was almost always on my TV.


Fast forward about 4 or 5 years and I became enrolled in the Pastry Arts program at the local community college.  Then I convinced my hubby to take the Wilton cake decorating classes at JoAnn Fabrics with me.  It was something for us to do together and it helped me tap into my inner cake decorator.  After we completed our courses we started making cakes for friends and family, apparently we're pretty good at it because we started getting crazy busy.  I ended up finding a better school and joining their Pastry Arts program and that’s where I’m at now.  To fill up my spare time (yeah right) I decided that I should blog about my favorite recipes, what we have for dinner, new products that I try, restaurants we eat at, and maybe a few “political” pieces regarding food.  I promise to keep these few and far between.  I hope that you enjoy my posts and I hope I inspire you! Thanks for stopping by!!!