A guest in my own kitchen..

So I'm not the kind of gal that likes to spend long hours in the kitchen preparing family meals, baking bread or family treats. Lucky for my children I married a man who loves cookbooks of all kinds and is never afraid to explore regional cuisine. As a matter of fact for his retirement gift I signed him up for a class at Johnson and Wales. I'm not sure that it wasn't a family gift as we still are enjoying his to die for pizza.

so here is where the guest part comes in. My friend's mom makes the best bread and butter pickles.She had me over for a tutorial years ago. I found myself with an abundance of cucumbers,what to do? OK, finally I will get out the canning equipment she sent home with me, dust off the recipe and get cooking. While I am at it I might as well attack that abundance of tomatoes as well. It ended up very enjoyable. My daughter Ivy spent the time in the kitchen talking to me. She takes after her father and enjoys cooking.


It is magical when the cucumbers turn from cucs to pickles!
Blanched and ready to be skinned!
Herbs fresh picked from the garden...good thing I love to garden!
A nice hot bath....
fruits of my labor...
treats of my daughter's labor...so while we chit chatted in the kitchen I introduced to her a blog that I have been following more years than I can remember, Smitten Kitchen.When I started following her I barley knew what a blog was. It was her wit that caught my attention first, after all it is a cooking blog...remember the title of this post...a guest in my own kitchen! Well, dear daughter found herself engulfed in the recipes. She asked if I would buy her the ingredients to make the coconut milk fudge, and I agreed. She made the fudge and then went on to make yeast bread and banana bread. Glad we have two people in our home that like the kitchen....it is not that I don't like the kitchen....I just like to be a guest!



Joy..................................all ways!


PS the bread and butter recipe I followed happens to also be the one Deb of Smitten Kitchen has on her blog.