You Might Want to Sit Down Before Reading This

I don't exactly have a reputation for being, well, home-maker-ish. My reputation in the kitchen is even worse-- if that's possible. In fact, I can clearly remember the day that my father explained how condensed soup worked. I was shocked and amazed- a whole new world was opened to me. I was in middle school before I realized, well was told, that brownies from scratch did not come from a box.

So pretty much anything I put together for dinner is an accomplishment. Pete makes fun of me because my chemistry side comes out in the kitchen quite often. I get very stressed out if I cannot follow the recipe exactly. I measure my ingredients to the bottom of the meniscus level. I am not capable of improvisation.

Have I set the stage for you?

When I do manage to cook a meal, it usually comes from a recipe blog. I love them-- they are the best! I'm addicted to blogs, and recipe blogs amaze me-- I can't believe anyone can actually know that much about cooking. Anyway. One of my favorite recipe blogs is called Simply Recipes. The woman who writes the articles talks about when her family ate this or that while growing up and it just makes the whole cooking experience much more delightful.

Anyway, to wrap up this very long story-- I finally had the courage to post a comment on her blog under her recipe for Banana Nut Muffins. I mentioned how I love to use her blog and then I told her how I always put my nuts in the food processor before adding them to muffins or brownies or such. I like the taste of nuts in things, but I don't like the texture-- so if I grind up the nuts before adding them, I get the best of both worlds. Now here comes the shocker. She replied to my post! And said that it was a great idea.

Now this may not seem like it is worth all the hype I have given it, but it totally is. I'm the one calling my parents to ask them every little question as I am cooking a meal. But here I was-- giving advice to a food blogger. And she liked it. Dang. It feels good :)