So I finally Did It

After tinkering with the idea and having friends suggest it I finally started a cooking blog. I am by no means a "professional" cook or anything, but I do get plenty of practice cooking for 10. I love cooking, baking, candy making.... just being creative in the kitchen. I like to focus on healthy cooking, but I enjoy chocolate chip cookies as much as the next person. Sometimes I like to get fancy, but my dishes also have to be practical. Cooking for 10 means I'm cooking a lot and often (and I do have a life outside of cooking) , I can't always spend all day preparing one meal. When I'm feeling fancy I might prepare one meal that takes all day and serve leftovers or something really simple for the rest of the day.

I usually decide what's for dinner a few hours before. I'd love to become more organized. I think a menu plan would really help us, but there's that whole planning and ...... yeah. We'll add that into my 2010 goal list.

I wanted a place where I could find all of my favorite recipes. I enjoy combining a few recipes I find online or in my cookbooks and creating something new. I'm thrilled when many times it turns out fantastic, but then I find myself trying to remember how I made it. I'm hoping this blog will do that for me while sharing some recipes with you.

I'm sure you are wondering who my 10 are. Well let me introduce you. My husband Mike and I have three boys. Thomas is seven, Michael is three and Joshua is two. We live with my in-laws Mike and Pat.... that's seven. Who are the last three you ask? Our dogs. That's right, I cook for our dogs. I've been making their food for a little over a year now and will never go back after seeing the positive changes in them and doing some research on what goes into even the highest quality store bought pet food. I may one day go all out and cook for the cats as well, but our picky fat cat will only eat his Science Diet (weight control, haha) dry food. He won't even eat tuna or salmon!?! Tuffy is our 9 year old black Lab. He has lived through Cancer. A little over a year ago after he finished his Chemo we thought we were going to lose him. His weight dropped a ton and he could barely stand. He was eating the same amount of his food, but not gaining any weight. That's when I started cooking their food and just over a year later he has put the weight back on and runs and plays with the younger dogs. Bumper is our four year old Yellow Lab and Oscar is our three year old "Oscar Meyer Wiener" dog :)

Cooking for 10 has me spending a lot of time in the kitchen, good thing I love it.