For the Love

I've loved being in the kitchen since I was a little girl.  My love of cooking and baking come from the most influential women in my life, my mom and grandmas.  Some of my first memories involve a recipe and bake ware.  One of my favorite memories is sitting on the counter at my Grandma Gurley's house and "helping," which usually meant just watching.  She had a gift for making and decorating cakes and would always make extra icing for the grandkids to play with.  She would put the icing in the dispenser, get out a cookie sheet, and let us go crazy with the icing.  She taught me things about decorated cakes I'll never forget like a clean cut sheet cake doesn't involve a knife...use dental floss, if you dip your icing spatula in water you'll get a smooth finish, and write the words on the cake first with a toothpick then the colored icing.

My Great-Grandma Gurley was known for her pies and homemade noodles.  She never used a pasta machine to roll out the dough, she used a rolling pin and only used a knife to cut her legendary thin noodles.

My mom had a talent for bread, pies, noodles, cookies and cinnamon rolls and used that talent to open a little bakery next to our garage.  We would go to school then come home, work on homework and then help make whatever was on the order.  It was nothing for us to prep, dip, and bake 80 dozen cookies in an day.  Thursday's were noodle days...but we used a pasta machine to roll the dough thin and cut the noodles both thick and thin.  Instead of bringing cupcakes for my 11th birthday, I brought mini cinnamon rolls to my 5th grade class.

I love recipes and cookbooks.

I love baking and cooking.

I'm starting this blog to share tested recipes, ideas and the love of art that takes place in the kitchen.

Happy baking!

Alicia