lobita's Profile

How about a post on starting a home cooking/baking business or doing a summary of what some websites are doing to connect people in the cottage industries with potential customers?

The on-time thing really bothers me too. We threw a party in October and everyone didn't show up until 10 o'clock! I couldn't believe it. And this last Saturday we went to a house warming party that was supposed to start at 8. We got there a little before 9 (not intentionally, we were honestly just running late) and we were one of the first there. I don't understand this!

I'd be more interested in a post about what marble IS actually good for in baking/candy making. We came across six marble slabs that a tile place were getting rid of for free. So now I have these squares and I don't know what to do with them.

This post just gave me a totally great idea: to use my husband's home-brewed gluten-free milk stout in a chocolate pudding recipe. That's genius! I had used it as a substitute for Guinness in a beer cake recipe and it was fabulous, but GF Milk Stout Chocolate Pudding...oh my gahd! Thank you thekitchn!

Hmm, sometimes I'm struck at how different my life as a wife is from my mother's (she's 75), and this post sparked that thought. She's a good cook, not because she had an interest in it, but because she HAD to ever since she was 11 years old. She's ALWAYS viewed cooking as a chore and I don't think she's ever really "enjoyed" it. Me, on the other hand, didn't have to start cooking until I was in my 20s (went gluten-free in the late 90s and there were no other choices at that time) and slowly fell in love with it. I get totally excited by recipes and absolutely love what I make.

Hummus and rice pudding are two recipes that I have down pat, just because they are so darn easy. I'm still amazed that people buy this stuff readymade in the grocery store.

My husband and Govenator should go bowling because you're both doing the same thing...except we search garage/yard sales for those '80s poppers and pay anywhere from $1-$5 for them. The people seeing us buying them seem shocked that we'd want them. One guy sarcastically asked us if we'd ever heard of a microwave, and I couldn't help myself from turning to him in my snottiest voice and saying, "Oh, no, we don't use it for popcorn...we ROAST our own coffee with them." That just confused him. And of course we use it for popcorn too, microwave popcorn is disgusting.

I'd add to this list an item about having an in-out policy, which means stock your pantry/fridge, but don't OVERstock it. When I open other people's fridges and find shelves packed full of condiments that are God-knows how old and freezers full of mystery meats and leftovers, it really grosses me out. I struggle to keep that from happening to my fridge and try to make meals that will use up the stuff I already have before heading to the store to buy more for different dishes. It also challenges me to think creatively about cooking by forcing myself to use what I have on-hand.

Cooking, for me, has become like running. It started out as something I needed to do for health reasons (cooking because I'm gluten-free, running because I wanted to lose weight), but it's now just part of my life. It's what I do, and I kind of don't label myself as a "runner" or a "home cook" because of that. And even though sometimes the thought of having to take out time to make something with that cup of chicken broth that's going to go bad if I let it sit in the fridge one more day, or having to get up at 5:15 am so that I can get a run in before work, makes me want to curse up and down, somewhere during the process of it, something changes and I begin to feel so thankful that I can do these things.

I always thought the instruction of seeding tomatoes was pointless and wasteful and completely ignored it in recipes.