I enjoy cooking. I like planning menus, grocery shopping, watching cooking shows, trying new foods, learning new techniques and most of all feeding my hungry husband!
If I could go back several years and relive the time I spent with my grandmothers I would definitely get more in their business in the kitchen. As a child I was too busy playing school or house while my grandmothers stood in their kitchens creating some of the most delicious food I have ever eaten to this day. It saddens me that I don’t know some of their secrets. Look, I know everybody thinks their grandmother makes the best fried chicken, but seriously I have never, EVER had fried chicken anywhere from anybody that was anything like Noni Red’s. It. Was. Magical. And I don’t know how to make it.
I’ve learned from this mistake and I now ask a lot of questions to the good cooks in my life and when given the opportunity I really watch them work in the kitchen. My mom will tell you that she isn’t the greatest cook and really doesn’t love cooking too much– however, she has a handful of things that she makes really well. She’s also good with knowing and figuring out good techniques in the kitchen. Now my dad, he looooooves cooking. And he loooooooves cooking BIG. Whenever he cooks, we could invite 10 extra people over to eat without him knowing and their would still be leftovers to cover a couple more days. The five greatest things my dad has taught me is garlic, onion, celery, salt and pepper! And, of course, how to make the best spaghetti sauce. This winter when he isn’t busy mowing grass, I’m gonna spend some time with him in the kitchen.
I’ve really learned a lot from watching cooking shows, reading cooking blogs and cookbooks. Here are some of my current favorite online resources:
Joy The Baker
Joy The Baker’s Bourbon Orange Coriander Barbecue Sauce
Brown Eyed Baker
Brown Eyed Baker’s Broccoli Salad
The Pioneer Woman
The Pioneer Woman’s Best Chocolate Sheet Cake
These three food blogs: Joy The Baker, Brown Eyed Baker and The Pioneer Woman are some of my favorites. Their websites are clean, their recipes are delicious, they give good easy-to-follow directions and their photographs of their foods are beautiful! Check them out, you’ll be glad you did. Try one of their recipes, eat it and repeat.
When given the opportunity I love to watch Julia Child, America’s Test Kitchen, Iron Chef America and anything with Gordon Ramsay. One of my favorite shows that is only in it’s second season is MasterChef. The winner of the first season was Whitney Miller. You can’t help but love her. She’s a cutie pie with the sweetest personality and she can cook the socks off of anything with great southern style. As a result of winning MasterChef, she has just written her first cookbook, Modern Hospitality. I’ve already spent a couple hours in the bookstore reading it cover to cover. It will be my next personal purchase.
Whitney Miller, MasterChef
I often ask my friends and family “what are you making for dinner tonight” or “what did y’all have for dinner last night” because I am always looking for new ideas. Please comment with a link to your favorite food blog, website or recipe!
Inside Out 
I can’t wait to check out those blogs! I already follow Joy the Baker though. I haven’t watched Master Chef because sometimes Gordon Ramsay’s attitude turns me off. He can be so loud! But if it’s not like Hell’s Kitchen I bet I’d like it. You’re the second of my friends to say they like it, so I’ll check it out. Have you watched Top Chef? I’m such a Top Chef fanatic! And Chopped! Those shows are some of my favorites.
Every day I ask Jeremy what he had for lunch. I can’t stand not knowing what he’s eaten! I’m food obsessed.
Brandi, Gordon is so much more chilled on MasterChef. You should give it a try. Oh, I love Top Chef and Chopped too! But we don’t get Food Network so I don’t see them too often. Our PBS channel has some good cooking shows. One of those being America’s Test Kitchen. It’s so dorky and detailed but I love it. They really teach you good cooking techniques.
Have you ever heard about mine and Kan’s lunch log that we had when we worked together? Every day it was a big deal after lunch for us to tell each other what we ate for lunch and what we did on our break. Kan created a lunch log for us to fill out. We kept it in a file folder and would pass it back and forth to each other like it was important work related stuff. Haha!
We LOVED the BBQ sauce recipe! I’ve never tasted anything like it.
I’m gonna try the chocolate sheet cake recipe for my sister’s bridal shower – thank you!
also, I love the way you write… I could read your stuff all day long.
Thanks so much, Stefanie!
I still haven’t made the barbeque sauce, but that’s going to change soon. My mom made Pioneer Woman’s chocolate sheet cake last weekend. It was delicious! I hope you enjoy it too!