For Kitchen Confidence:
More than anything, my desire for this blog is to give you the confidence you need to succeed in the kitchen. Whether you are using my recipes, or something you found off of pinterest, I want you to be able to read a recipe and understand everything that is going on and predict problems before they arise.
To do that, I've combined my knowledge from Culinary school with years in the Culinary industry as, and have made it all accessible here for you.
Some good places to start are:
- Cooking Methods. While it may not seem like a lot of fun to read about cooking methods. Understanding them properly could help prevent a total recipe catastrophe, as well as save you time, money, resources, and dinner before something goes totally awry.
- Basics. If you are a true beginner (or just never learned a good way to do it), this is a great section for you. It covers everything - with step by step picture or video instructions - explaining things like how to roast garlic by the head or clove or how to toast hazelnuts.
- Ingredients Again, not the most flashy category to go check out, but this is going to have really useful tips in it like how to bake with honey, and what type of flour to use.
- Glossary. One of the most frustrating things when you are trying to make a new recipe or understand something is when jargon is used. As expected, the culinary world as a lot of its own unique jargon. Instead of having to pull up a new tab every time and google the word - I have a handy dandy quick search glossary for you. I will try my hardest to have posts that explain each of them as well, but for in a pinch, the glossary is always available.
For Recipes:
To make things as easy as possible for you, I have a super helpful in post app that provides an interactive recipe interface. So pretty much what that means is that there are cool features. "What kind of cool features?", you ask.
- There is a super cool little timer feature that will show up in yellow. It is also an actual timer. Just click the time and it will start the countdown for you. It alarms when its done so you can check off your box and move on to the next step. Nifty, right?
- In the servings section there is a slider that allows you to adjust the amount of servings you want to make. When you use that slider, it automatically adjusts the ingredients to match your desired portions.
- At the bottom of each recipe there is a set of nutrition facts, just in case you're watching your calories, sodium, cholesterol, etc...
- If you're looking for a recipe, you can just head over to the recipe section and search based on a number of different criteria. Instead of having to know what you want to make, you can search by category (brunch, sides, desserts, etc...), cuisine (american, french, italian, etc...), Cooking method (especially handy if you want to grill), as well as your basic search parameters like servings, keywords, or ingredients.
- To help you choose which recipes you are ready for there are a few helpful things to look for
- Difficulty. A dot that changes from green, to yellow, to red, will show you difficulty level.
- Prep time and cook time. I try as often as possible to make this realistic for the basic home cook - so what that means is that I usually have my husband make it and time him. I do my best to make these times be accurate.
- Yeilds. Just as I try to be honest with the prep and cook times, I try to do so with yields. I go by the portion size I would serve you if I were making this for you in a gourmet restaurant. Not too big, not too small. I'm not going to make a recipe that will honestly serve 4 people until they are full a recipe marked as for 6 servings because that sounds better. Get what I'm saying?
- Rating. If you really like a recipe, you can show your love it by giving it a star review on the recipe. Not only will this be helpful for you, but it will show other people who visit the site that the recipe is loved.
- If you love to use social media, floating at the bottom of the page are some social share buttons that let you share the recipe to some of the most popular platforms. Or, if you like, you can just email it to yourself or a friend.
- Lastly, if you are like me and prefer to have things in print, you can print out the recipe. I know, I know, it's a thing of the past and becoming antiquated, but sometimes its just useful.
For Groceries:
Every post that features a recipe will come with a printable (or responsive, if you prefer) grocery list. I do my best to put the amounts down that you'll find in the grocery store - for example - if the recipe calls for ¾c. half and half, I'll tell you to purchase a half pint of half and half. Or, if you need a 2 tablespoons of flat-leaf parsley, I will tell you to buy one bunch of parsley. I don't know about you, but if I don't get in and out of a grocery store quickly, I usually leave with a container of cookies or something covered in chocolate - so I've tried to make it as easy as possible.
For Consistency:
I update this blog 1-2 times per week. We all know that life sometimes gets in the way, so usually that means that if there wasn't something pertinent to that week's recipe, there may not be a post for Monday.
- Mondays: I update with new Information or Basics. These will be posts similar to Understanding the different types of flour or Roasting Garlic 101.
- Tuesday's or Thursday's: I update with new recipes.
If keeping up with the schedule seems too frustrating and more than you would like, you can subscribe to our email. You'll receive an email once a month (and only once a month - and we never spam you or sell your email) letting you know about the posts from the month. As a subscriber to the email you will also receive any news of exciting events, office hours, Q&A's, or product launches before anyone else. Not to mention, you also get a free 21 recipe Macaroni & Cheese ebook!
For Community:
If you've already been to the about me page, you know how important community is to me. I plan to foster the community that I value in real life through this website as well. Right now, as the blog builds, the very best way to do that is to comment on the posts (I'll almost always respond), or follow and participate on any of our social media platforms. I want to get to know you and know your name and personality. If you haven't picked up on it by now - I LOVE friends. So please, be my friend.