The View From My Kitchen

When my life gets stressful, overwhelming or just plain difficult, I head for the kitchen. I wish that I had inherited my mother's clean until everything sparkles gene, but alas, I did not. Instead, I cook. And cook. And bake. And then I bake some more.

In the early morning light I line ingredients up on the counters and brew myself a ginormous cup of tea. If I am feeling especially ironic, I pour my tea into this mug. I like to glare at it and say, What are you looking at? And then I laugh. It's cheaper than therapy.

Even though it has been a million degrees over here, I decided that Spicy Corn & Chicken Chowder was a brilliant idea. And it was. Fresh corn from the cob, jalapenos from my garden and crispy pieces of thick bacon easily came together in a creamy thick broth. It was even better for lunch the next day, which is the sign of a fantastic recipe. I improvised the recipe as I went along, making tons of changes, but the original recipe was from Gina Neely.

Since Christmas is only 4 months-ish away, I have been baking new cookie recipes to see if they make the cut for my cookie baking craziness. These Brown Sugar Praline Cookies absolutely are as delicious as they look. Not a cookie remained after 24 hours. The Raspberry Linzer Cookies that I posted yesterday also made the cut.

The Symphony Macadamia Nut cookies that I made were also very satisfying, but not quite special enough for Christmas. I am a Christmas Cookie snob. It's true.

Paizlee came in to the kitchen to "help" with the cookies while I was baking and repeated eleventy billion times, "Cookie? Cookie now? Now? Cookie now?" I gave her yogurt. And she was happy.

Although you technically can't eat play doh, it was made in my kitchen. I love homemade play doh specifically because it smells like my childhood. It is such a familiar, comforting smell. One day, perhaps my kids will feel the same way. It is such a fantasticly simple thing for kids to play with.

Plus, just think of all the money I will save on decorating.

And now I am heading back to my kitchen to pull the peach cobbler out of the oven and finish the Coconut Chicken Curry. Wish you were here to share it with us.