Recipes

Since I love to cook and the cooking theme that some bloggers are doing for the A to Z Challenge has recipes on my mind, I thought it might be fun to talk about recipes for my R post. 

It seems that most people either follow a recipe exactly, or they view it as more of an inspiration or a very loose guideline.  Which one are you?

I tend to follow recipes exactly when it comes to baking and view them as more of an inspiration or very loose guideline when it comes to cooking.  I’ve heard people say that cooking is an art and baking is a science.  I don’t think I’m an artist, but I know for sure that I’m no scientist.  I can usually troubleshoot cooking recipes (though there are some that are beyond help).  I can’t troubleshoot a baking recipe.  If it seems fixable, I ask Nick’s mom.  Otherwise, I move on to another recipe. 

I do think I’m fairly good at judging whether or not a recipe will be good.  When it comes to baking, it seems like buttermilk and/or lots of eggs are usually a good sign.  Trying to decide between two different recipes for the same kind of cake?  Go with the one that has more eggs. 

I’m a lot more adventurous when it comes to cooking.  I come up with a lot of ideas on my own.  Some are great!  Some are terrible.  If you’ve ever wondered if sloppy joe pasta is a good idea, I’m here to tell you that it definitely is not.  Fortunately, Nick is very patient with my cooking experiments, and the good ones far outnumber the bad ones.

When I’m not concocting my own recipes, some of my favorite sources are old cookbooks.  It seems like the fundraiser (usually for a church or some kind of charity) cookbooks have some of the best recipes ever.  Sometimes the comments and notes are kind of cute, too, things like “sure to make your husband smile” or “Herschel’s favorite chicken.”  I like the stories that go with the recipes. 

The only drawback to some of those cookbooks is that they sometimes have instructions like “cook until done,” “bake in a hot oven,” “add a large scoop of …”  I’m usually willing to take a guess when it comes to the cooked ones, but not when it comes to the baked ones. 

I don’t know if anyone even does the fundraiser cookbooks anymore.  I imagine it might be hard to get someone to buy them when there are so many blogs with recipes.  Though, recipes from blogs seem to be very hit or miss.  Some of my tried and true favorites are Good Cheap Eats, Budget Bytes, and The Frugal Girl.  We’ve consistently liked enough of those recipes (and my modifications to them) that I feel confident in trying new ones from them. 

Some tips I’ve learned for avoiding bad recipes are to look at other recipes on the blog/website to see if they sound good or if they sound gross, leave me with some food safety concerns, or sound too good to be true.  Have a recipe for cooking kidney beans in the crockpot?  I’ll pass on all of them from that site.  Food poisoning is something I prefer to keep off the menu, thank you very much.  Have a recipe that promises to take something that takes hours to prepare and have it done in 20 minutes?  I’m probably passing unless you have a very compelling argument for why/how it works.  Seem more focused on keeping the recipes under a certain price point?  I’ll probably pass.  Some things are just more expensive to prepare, and making cheaper substitutions just gets weird.  I’d rather wait and make the real thing.

I also love taking cooking classes.  A local Mediterranean restaurant offers cooking classes, and I’ve learned so much from them.  I had no idea what Tahini was before those classes.  That’s also where I finally learned to make an omelet.  It helps when you’re the most fearless person in the class.  (Cooking class is the only place where I will ever be the bravest person in the room!)  I’m willing to try it anytime they ask for a volunteer, which means I’ve gotten a lot of hands-on instruction. 

They stopped offering cooking classes during COVID but are starting them back up again.  Now I just have to wait for one I haven’t already taken. 

Where do you find recipes, or do you create your own?  Are you a strict recipe follower, or do you make changes? 

Recipes

I love cooking, and I love collecting cookbooks and recipes.  You might even say I’m a little obsessed, but it makes me happy, and some of the recipes make other people really happy.  So no harm done, right?

It’s practically impossible for me to pick a favorite recipe.  So much depends on what I’m in the mood for, what else I have going on, and what I’m looking to accomplish with a recipe.  But there are definitely some recipes that are special because of where they came from or because of memories associated with them.  These are two of my special recipes:

Sausage Gravy:  This is my paternal grandmother’s recipe.  She doesn’t cook at all anymore, but she used to love cooking.  I have so many recipes from her, and she probably taught me more about cooking than any other person. 

This sausage gravy is absolutely delicious, and it was almost always what we had for breakfast when we’d visit them.  It’s also the very first breakfast I ever made for Nick when we were dating, and it’s the first breakfast we ever had using our new dishes that we received as wedding presents. 

Pumpkin Pie:  This is my maternal grandmother’s recipe.   She hated cooking for the most part, but this was one of the few things she enjoyed making.  It also helped that I was the first grandchild and it was my favorite dessert.

It’s an incredibly good pie, and it’s the only handwritten recipe I have from her.  It’s also the dessert we had the night that Nick and I announced our engagement to my side of the family.  My mom made dinner and Granny made pumpkin pie because we were coming and it was my favorite. 

So what about you?  Are there recipes that are special for you?