kitchen meme

found at Like Merchant Ships

1. How many meals does most of your family eat at home each week? How many are in your family?
I'm going to say 19? We tend to go out to dinner one night a week, and usually out for lunch once a week or so. There are 4 in our family. I feed the kids regularly, because of B's work schedule, he is fed much more sporadically.

2. How many cookbooks do you own? How often do you refer to a cookbook each week? I own a LOT of cookbooks. 2 full bookshelves, plus more that don't fit on the shelves. I go through periods where I do a lot of reading/searching in them; and then I don't touch them for a month.

4. Do you collect recipes from other sources? I subscribe to Cooking Light magazine, and also look at recipes in magazines like Woman's Day or Family Circle. I search the internet for recipes - places like allrecipes and recipezaar.

5. How do you store those recipes? Save the web-based ones on my computer, tear out and save the magazine ones in a folder.

6. When you cook, do you follow the recipe pretty closely, or do you use recipes primarily to give you ideas? I use recipes as a starting point usually. I will follow a recipe carefully (usually) the first time I make it, then modify from there. Of course, if it has something I just don't like (mushrooms - bleck) then I change it right away. I'm not afraid of fiddling with ingredients, or even measurements and usually have good results.

7. Is there a particular ethnic style or flavor that predominates in your cooking? If so, what is it? No, not really. I cook different things.

8. What's your favorite kitchen task related to meal planning and preparation? When someone else cooks AND cleans up!

9. What's your least favorite part? Close tie between figuring out what exactly to prepare . . . and cleaning up the mess.

10. Do you plan menus before you shop? I go through phases. Sometimes I'm very careful, other times not. With B not being home for dinner most nights, usually I'm preparing stuff the kids like, so it's much simpler.

11. What are your three favorite kitchen tools or appliances? Kitchenaid mixer, Henckel knives, wooden rolling pin

12. If you could buy one new thing for your kitchen, money was no object, and space not an issue, what would you most like to have? double oven or a covered, outside kitchen -- we have the fancy grill, but I'd like a sink out there, a covered area to shield from the sun, a nice cutting/prep area.

13. Since money and space probably are objects, what are you most likely to buy next? can't think of one. I have a lot of kitchen gadgets already.

14. Do you have a separate freezer for storage? Yes, and I LOVE having a 2nd freezer!

15. Grocery shop alone or with others? Usually with my 2 boys - probably 95% of the time. 4.5% on my own, .5 with B and both boys. Shopping with the 3 of them will take twice as long, so I try to avoid that.

16. How many meatless main dish meals do you fix in a week? Probably about 1/2 of our meals are meatless. Less when B is around for dinner regularly.

17. If you have a decorating theme in your kitchen, what is it? No theme at all. That may change this year, but not sure which direction we're going to go in.

18. What's the first thing you ever learned to cook, and how old were you? I've been cooking since I was 9 or so. I was a latchkey kid and often made dinner before my parents came home. I think scrambled eggs were one of the first things I made on my own regularly. I used to make this horrific spam casserole with a mustard sauce for dinner . . .I really can't imagine it now, but as a family we used to eat it regularly.

19. How did you learn to cook? Trial and error. Cookbooks. Watching my mom.

20. Tag two other people to play. Alexa . . . I think you're the only regular reader here :) and anyone else that wants to play!