My Very First Made-from-Scratch Apple Pie

Well here it is!  I used the recipe out of the Better Homes cookbook and it turned out great.  I served it with vanilla bean ice cream and Ewan asked for more...he didn't get more, though. ;)

You see?  I even weaved the crust!  It was actually not as hard as I thought.  I will definitely use this recipe again but maybe with a little more cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on top.

My Tools

I don't own anything fancy or super high quality in the kitchen (or at all really), but I'm grateful for what I do have and make the best of it.  The following are the tools that I use on a day-to-day basis.

Probably the most used appliance in our house (next to the tv) is this baby right here.  A lovely glass top electric stove.  I have cooked on a gas range for most of my life so it took some adjusting when we moved in here and only had electric hook ups.  We're not planning on rewiring our home any time soon, so this is what I work with.

I am pleased to introduce Betty White, my favorite kitchen tool.  A Kitchen-Aid Classic mixer.  Love this! 

When my mom moved in with us she brought with her this nice set of Rachel Ray pots & pans.  I really really like them and though someday I'd like to get something a little more durable, these are great for what I make.

I use recipes from several different sources.  I use the Better Homes cookbook the most.  I use other fun cookbooks, too, though especially when preparing food for Ewan (and eventually Feenie).  I have a ton of handed down recipes that I've recieved from friends and family.  The bulk of those, though, I received from strangers.  See, there's a website called http://www.wishuponahero.com/ and I placed a wish on there for recipes and got over 100 favorite recipes from folks on there.  It was great!  I also rip recipes out of magazines and print them off from internet sites.  If you have a recipe you'd like me to try, please feel free to email it to angela@drummultimedia.com.  I'll try anything once!

And finally, a very disorganized drawer full of random utensils. (This drawer makes me crazy, by the way, and I hesitate to even post a picture but I felt it needed to be included.)

I also use the microwave once in a while but I really try to make things using "old fashioned" methods.  But there you have it, my plain old awesome kitchen.  

I'll Give It A Whirl!

Well hello there, beautiful!  I've decided to start a kitchen blog as I spend much of my time in there trying new recipes and preparing old ones.  Here is a bit of background: I absolutely love cooking and baking and hosting, though I am still relatively new to it.  I was raised pretty much on fast food and when we did eat at home, it was usually something like Hamburger Helper.  I'm not bitter about it but that's not at all what I want to feed my family.  My family includes a husband, a rockstar of a son who will be 5 in December, a beautiful little butterball of a daughter who is 4 months and a mom who lives with us...and stays out of the kitchen for the most part, these days. ;)  I am lucky enough to be able to stay home with our children and do a little photography on the side.  We enjoy spending time with our family, watching movies, playing games, bike rides, camping, doing projects around our home and working on our 1966 Valiant.  The bulk of my cooking and baking is homestyle stuff.  I'm not too daring yet to do the fancy stuff but maybe someday.  For now I'll stick to mostly Betty Crocker or handed down recipes. So that's a little about me and my family.  I'll start with my first recipe here later today.  I made my first apple pie from scratch last night.  I think I'll start with that.