Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Homemade Goodness

Last night I made homemade roasted potato wedges (think jo-jo's, only yummier!) soaked in balsamic vinaigrette. I also made some homemade chicken strips. Both of them turned out pretty fantastic if I do say so myself!

Have I mentioned lately that I love The Pioneer Woman?

This might sound silly, but before I met her I had no idea that just about everything can be boiled down to a few simple, yummy, fresh, delicious ingredients. The thought of packaged and boxed foods chalked full of nasty preservatives is less and less appealing by the day. I'm becoming a food snot.

The funniest part is that I'm preparing much yummier foods at fractions of the cost of my former dinner selections. Now I'm starting to wonder how to pair all sorts of things that I use often down to their more basic (i.e. cheaper) ingredients.

For those of you who weren't raised by a pack of wolves, this might not be as stunning to you as it is to me. But, since I was raised by a pack of wolves, I confess that I had no idea until just recently that you could make pancakes out of something other than a Krusteaz "just add water" mix. And, I recently learned how to make my own frosting. No $2 Betty Crocker can necessary.

Sunday night I made crepes. I've always looked forward to having them at my mom's house, but I've never had the right pan. Lucky me, she had a spare! So, I came home and made crepes out of stuff I have on hand all the time. Flour, sugar, butter, eggs, salt and vanilla. That's it! So, we enjoyed boat-loads of yummy crepes. Simple, yet profound.

I have no idea why I'm writing right now. I'm not quite sure what makes me think anyone wants to hear about my newfound cooking excitement. Yet, I write anyway. What does that say about me? I feel like I'm having a good ole conversation with myself when I write. Hmmm...

5 comments:

simplykersh said...

Yumm! Cooking from scratch is the best. And I agree cheap and more healthy. Though slightly more time consuming, the benefits way out way the that. Do you ever watch Alton Brown's Good Eats? He focuses on one basic food per episode and looks at many different things it can do. Plus they are usually funny. Many of his episodes are on-line for free and they may be helpful for the up and coming food snot! Enjoy!!

Carrie said...

If I leave you a comment, will you feel better? ;)

Sarah M said...

Oh man - I have a killer "from scratch" pancake recipe if you want it. It turns out a little different every time, but they are always SO good. And they are fantastic to add things like blueberries and raspberries (or chocolate chips) to.

Jennifer said...

Isn't cooking so amazingly fun? I love it. My favorite recipe website which I refrence almost daily is www.recipezaar.com. It has a recipe for everything!

T & K said...

I got a kitchenaid mixer for Christmas...I've been making bread not quite like crazy, but pretty close. I have bagels rising right now. I'll have to check out this pioneer lady, sounds great!