Family:Famine (not really-they ate Chili Dogs)

Me:Feast

♥♥♥♥ (4out of 5 hearts)

I have been visiting this awesome blog Pioneer Woman Cooks for a couple of weeks now and everyday that I explore her recipe archives, I can’t wait to get in my kitchen and start making something yummy. It’s not like her recipes are complicated with a lot of fancy ingredients, on the contrary. They are simple, basic, and look OH SO delicious!! I put it on my short list of recipes to try.

I really enjoyed the texture and flavor of this soup. It was more puree and less soupy though. I think I let the chicken broth boil out too long before I covered it. Sometimes I don’t read the recipe and absorb it until after I have almost all the way cooked it! Then I wonder why it’s not doing what I thought it should! Haha! I didn’t have any fresh basil, so I used fresh dill. I also topped it with crumbled feta cheese. The cheese was a great salty addition to the soup. I will use that next time for sure! I think crispy bacon would be good sprinkled on top as well!

I think I would have given this 5 hearts if I had used fresh carrots instead of the sort of dry ones in the bottom of my veggie bin and I had basil to put on top. Other than that, I really loved this soup.

When I was a young girl, I would watch cooking shows on PBS. They mostly came on during the weekend and some of my favorites were shows like:

• Yan Can Cook with Martin Yan
  
• The Galloping Gourmet with Graham Kerr
• The French Chef with Julia Childs
  
• Cooking with Jacques Pepin
• Great Chefs

These cooking shows were on TV before the cooking network was on cable. Well, it could have been on cable, but we didn’t have cable, so I wouldn’t know. Anyway..the whole point is, I would watch these shows and dream of becoming a chef. I took cooking classes in high school as an elective. I learned basic tecqniques that have stayed with me for the last 20 years. I enjoyed cooking for my Mom and anticipated cooking with my Dad. He and I share a love of cookbooks and talking about food; eating and preparing it.
When I grew up and married, I didn’t stop loving to cook. When Jon and I had babies, it was easy to keep making new dishes and experimenting. It was when they got older and more vocal about their food preferences that I began to dread dinner time. For about 3 years, we were limited to a very short list of foods that everyone would eat. I thought I would never enjoy cooking again. I really thought the love, excitement, and joy of preparing a meal was lost. Now that the kids are older and are expanding their palates I feel that twinge of excitement and flutter of happiness when I think about what great meal I can make for my family.

Here I will post my weekly menu plans, recipes I come across, and pictures of my creations! Stay tuned, it’ll be delicious!!