I like to bake sweet things. Then I like to eat sweet things. It just tastes so much better than the grocery store version! I like regular food, too, but I do eat honey by the spoonful on a semi-regular basis.
My love of food started many years ago...I grew up in two different homes with pretty different food. I learned about a variety of foods, and techniques by helping make dinner. Most of what I learned to make as a youngster was vegetarian. I was a Junior in High School before I truly got my hands on meat. My mom called home one afternoon and told me I had to put the chicken in the oven. It was only slightly traumatizing. I managed, and now my meat experience has grown, but that is mostly because my husband is a butcher who has been known to bring home random things...like rabbit and frog legs.
I like to look at recipes, but I rarely follow them to a T. I like to get ideas from them. It is very common that I will look up variations for a dish and pick the recipe that best matches the ingredients I have on hand. It has to sound good, too. With baking I have learned it is important to follow the recipe at least the first time you use it. Baking is about as close as I come to being good at chemistry. I understand that there are specific components to make baked goods do specific things. I just do not have ratios memorized. Maybe by the time I am a Grandma I will be able to bake a cake or blueberry muffins from scratch by memory.
I love cookbooks. I love the pictures and inspiration I get from them. I have a few cookbooks and baking books. Many were given to me (my favorite one was a gift). Some were my own acquisitions. When Borders was in town I had a little problem, if I saw a good cookbook/baking book for a bargain, I would buy it. As a result I had to limit my trips to the bookstore. Okay, so there are only 4 of these on my shelf, I guess I exhibited better restraint than I remembered.
I went through a serious Martha Stewart phase. I got a subscription to Everyday Food and Everyday Living, though I canceled after 1 year. They did not offer the same great price the second time around, and I already had 1 year's worth, all 4 seasons, of Martha Stewart food and kitchen tips. That seemed sufficient. In all honesty, she has some great ideas. For as much fun as people make of the lady, I think they are just jealous.
I also dabble a bit in gardening, if you can call having a bunch of plants in pots that I put outside in the Spring and bring in every Fall gardening. I am working my way into seasonal veggies. You can visit my Garden Variety Musings if you have any interest in plant life. I have a few recipes that used ingredients that I grew myself, so there is a little edible connection for you.
