Name Change - Likes to Play with Her Food

Yes, I've changed the name of my blog.  I've been wanting to change it for awhile, but was afraid I'd lose my past posts.  One of the reasons I began this blog is so I could remember how I made some of the awesome vegan meals we share at home.  I now have a kind of personal cookbook I can refer to for favorite recipes like the mac & cheese or a good dessert. I hope you can find them again too. I think its time though. I'm not really a flexitarian anymore.  I no longer cook with any animal products or eat them in a restaurant.  I'd rather keep my blog plant based now too. But no matter what I'm cooking with the whole thing started because I do love to play with my food.  My new url is:  http://debkaycooking.blogspot.com/

I love to find what's available and decide what to make our meals with that.  Recently I've limited the trips to the grocery store.  In the winter I find myself at the grocery store a bit more for our fresh produce. Since I buy nuts, grains, beans, and spices, in bulk and I canned and dried fresh food in the summer, I try to cook with what we have.  Even though I try to stay in the produce section, I am an adventurous cook, I do buy things that aren't on my list when I shop.  Cutting down the trips to the market has saved some money and time.

I'm getting ready for another cooking class soon. I am happy about the local response  to the cooking classes.  When Gayle asked me to do classes in the cafe a couple years ago, I thought it would be fun way to practice, but, I imagined ten people or less.  I thought I'd have to find a place closer to Portland to practice my new skills.  There's been twenty-five people each class and there are already twenty people signed up for the next one on January 19th, plus three or four people volunteering to help out. It's a fun event for us to look forward to.  I begin working on the class a month before, planning the recipes, finding information, and putting it all together in a nice packet.  There's a shopping list to create and spice blends to get together.  I still need to make myself a regular equipment list. I am having fun with it. I feel like I plan a party every other month now.  We have a local vegan potluck coming up too and we haven't met since August.  This should be a fun event.  I'm looking forward to seeing the people who like to come as well as what they've prepared for dinner. The best part about all this is that I'm working from home and doing what I love to do, spending time with friends and cooking, feeding people beautiful food, and share in learning to do it in a healthy and fun way.

I looked around last week and decided it's about time I spent some time finding my counter tops.  I don't see them very often, something always going on.  I shop at the bulk food stores as much as possible so I always have little bags of spices and herbs everywhere.  I try to keep them organized in little bowls, but every once in awhile I notice I have many little bowls.  Before I started my cooking for the weekend, I spent a large part of the morning organizing the herbs & spices and combining the duplicates and triplicates of curry, turmeric, marjoram, and more I've gathered over the last few months.  It looks nice now, but it'll be cluttered with cooking ingredients soon.  I would like to live in a smaller kitchen someday, I've got to learn to condense.  Neat freak I am not, there are more important things in life.  Happy New Year!

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