Learning to copy...I mean, cook!

I am no health nut. Among some of my favorite foods are McDonald's and ball park nachos. I like my food fried and in large quantities. What's funny is, I don't cook this way. I have never fried any food in our kitchen. We eat our meats baked, seared, grilled...not fried. My favorite vegetable is french fries, but we don't eat those at home...very often. :)

Before I became a wife, back when I was just a girl, I couldn't cook a thing. I remember calling my mom on the phone when I was 19 or 20 and saying, "I bought this chicken breast. What do I do with it?" A few years later I had learned a few things, like the fact that men like to eat. AND they prefer good food, just like us! So while I was bound and determined to get me one ;) I also took him with me to Patsy's Cooking Class. (This is not an official cooking class. Patsy was the mother of one of my middle school students at the time. She loved to cook and we loved her, so she taught us some of her favorite recipes. We cooked huge batches of stuffed shells, fried shrimp, homemade pesto, fried chicken, pastas with loads of ingredients I didn't eat at the time, etc. right from her own kitchen. We would take home a batch to have for dinner that night, she kept a batch for dinner for her family, and then the third batch went to some family she knew that was in need of a home cooked meal. This is, by the way, an amazing ministry older women can do for younger women.)

So I learned some basics to cooking as I fell in love with Hubby. By the time we were engaged, I became frantic about how I would prepare meals (every day?!)  and he became nervous about what he might have to eat from then on. Which is just ridiculous if you as me, because it's not really a quesadilla if there's a Kraft single between the tortillas.

Over the last four years, I've learned a lot. I can boast of some pretty delicious meals. But I am not a genius in the kitchen. Do you know what I mean? Have you met those women who can create? They just look in their pantry and fridge and throw something together and it's beautiful and scrumptious? I don't create. I am no artist. I am a copycat. Which is why I frolic in the world of genius cookbooks. Nearly every meal I make is from a cookbook, and I'm not ashamed of that. I will steal from anyone. Here are my favorite places to thieve (yes it is a word) Click the picture to find out more:

 Now I have to stop here and make this next one stand out. It is above and beyond the greatest cookbook of my life! 75% of our go-to recipes come from this book. We adore it unconditionally. It is the mother of all good cookbooks. I have given it to several people as gifts and I will continue to until everyone I know has one. I L-O-V-E this cookbook:

I also use two blogs that have recipes:

http://www.flythroughourwindow.com/  and  http://thepioneerwoman.com/

What I really wanted to write about was my adventures in making baby food. This post is too long as it is. Next up: my adventures in making baby food.