I bake at my mom's house. Why?
1. Mom has all the spices I'll ever need
2. They did a renovation and now she has like 13 feet of counter
3. That doesn't include the 9 foot island
4. And the the double oven
5. And an extra freezer that came about from the holiday baking
6. Mom has nicer stuffs than I do
7. My apartment has 2 feet of space
And clearly I need the space. I think part of mom likes that I took over the holiday baking...and part wishes I would buy a house and get out of hers.
In my defense I have 3 recipes going here. Revel Bars, Cherry Winks and dough for Almond Orange Bites. Isn't having a double oven the coolest?!
I don't usually make this much of a mess at home...but thats only because I don't have this much space. I'm a kitchen spaz.
Add that to my list of New Years resolutions: Clean As You Cook.
How comfortable are you in the kitchen? Are you neat? Messy? A recipe follower? An improviser?
Wow, what I wouldn't give for so much space in the kitchen!
ReplyDeleteoh my---I started out baking like this, but I just couldn't take the mess-(of course, I've never had that much kitchen in my life). NOW I clean as I go--so much better for me~
ReplyDeleteWow! What a kitchen! Isn't it great to have all that space for cooking and when you have a big crowd over?
ReplyDeleteWhen we first moved into the cottage 30 years ago, we had very little counter space ... Maybe 3 feet. We've probably close to quadrupled it. Still nothing that compares to your mom's, but SOOOOOO much better!
It took me years to learn, but now I clean as I go and I try to cook or bake more efficiently by doubling or tripling recipes, or if baking cookies, preparing the dough of several different cookies at one time and then bake as I go throughout the week.
I'm not as big an improvisor as my boys are!
Hmmmmmm, I clean as I go sort of. When baking I am a follow the recipe gal because you really need to. When cooking I am more of an improvisor, especially if it is a recipe that I have made before.
ReplyDeleteI think I'd kill for that counter space! I tend to clean as I go--otherwise I couldn't move! Only one oven, so none of that two different recipes at the same time for me. You lukcy!
ReplyDeleteWOW...yeah I definitely used to bake like that, but with the kids wanting to mess around in the kitchen...cuz boys are crazy...I usually premeasure everything out just so I can avoid the arguments over who gets to scoop out what....ugh now I am totally tired, haha.
ReplyDeleteI so wish I had a double oven. I love cooking at my Momma's house for that very reason. Does that mean one day when we grow up we'll have double ovens? I hope so.
ReplyDeleteI clean as I cook, and I can't help it. It was bred into me. I also cook with as few pots as possible, challenging, but I manage and my dishwasher thanks me (Hmmm...I'm thinking two dishwashers would be nice, too...)
I'm learned to clean as I go, and for me it's much more efficient. I start out filling the sink with hot sudsy water, and it makes it easy to keep things tidy. My recipes, for Christmas cookies anyway, are tried and true, so no improvising on those! Otherwise, I'm always fiddling with recipes, it makes cooking fun.
ReplyDeleteI keep my baking ingredients in the cabinets nearest the fridge and only grab things as I need them and put them back as soon as I've used it. So I guess that makes me the "clean as I go" type which is surprising because I am seriously, the messiest person I know in every other department!!!
ReplyDeleteMy kitchen is small so I'm forced to be neat or I would have no room to bake. If I had lots of space I'm sure I would expand to fill it! I am absolutely rabid about following a recipe exactly, I mean down to the last 1/4 teaspoon. It makes me crazed when people don't measure properly then complain when their cake flops. In baking the proper measurement DOES matter. It's not like making soup where you can improvise and still have a delicious end result. My friends think it's amazing that my baking always turns out as pictured but then don't follow my recipes exactly so they can get the same result. I remember one friend wailing that her cake didn't rise properly then said she had used baking soda instead of baking powder. "Aren't they the same thing, she said?" Oh, and she couldn't find her measuring spoons so used a regular spoon from her silverware set. And she wondered why her cake flopped. Grrrrrrrr!
ReplyDeleteJaxx
That is awesome... Looks like some good cooking/baking going on in there!
ReplyDeleteMy kitchen is huge and nearly perfectly organized, (I'm just being real, here... and if I lied and said it was a disaster, you'd know I was lying) and of course I'm the one who chants, "Clean as you cook" to my daughter... I'm sure I drive her nuts... I just know she will pay me back by cooking in my kitchen someday and scattering mess EVERYWHERE. She does love to cook...
Clean as you go. Drives me a bit crazy to have all that clutter lying around and then I usually put in some ingredient that doesn't belong. I am mostly a recipe follower with a small amount of improvising. Just a tweak here and there. Love your mom's kitchen!
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh...I'm totally loving your moms kitchen!!! It's so beautiful!! She must love to cook too!
ReplyDeleteSuch a lovely kitchen!
ReplyDeleteGoodness me. Is B good at clearing up? I love your Mom's wonderful, real, and wonderfully real kitchen.
ReplyDeleteI *try* to clean-as-I-go, but I'm not always succesful. I'm also wont to be in the midst of multiple projects at once.
ReplyDeleteAnd your situation is much like mine: tiny apartment for me, ginormous expansive kitchen for mom. I always end up at her house for large baking or sewing projects because I just don't have the space!
Looks like you were having a great day baking! Cherry winks sound very cute. A recipe on the way perhaps??? I can only hope! :o) I usually clean as I go, but always end up messy anyway.
ReplyDeleteI like to clean as I go, but I don't always. My kitchen is usually a major disaster since I let my dirty dishes pile up all day, and then do one big dishwasher load at the end of the day once all kids are in bed. Sometimes I can get the dishes unloaded in the a.m. and then keep the dishwasher loaded during the day, which is nice...but it's hard for me to do. Why? I don't know. Why am I designed to go the hard way? That kitchen is amazing...I would love it. Although, I think it would just mean that much more space on which to leave/make a mess. I have FSS (flat surface syndrome), so the less flat surface space around, the better, probably. You seem like a cookie girl...I like cake. Not as much work! :)
ReplyDeletewow... look at that stretch of kitchen!!!! i did my once a year baking yesterday and made a complete mess... not to mention broke my sister in laws electric mixer. hahaha! ;P i tried cleaning as i went but it didn't help much. since i'm a newbie when it comes to baking, i definitely stick to the recipe! not comfy enough to improvise just yet!
ReplyDeleteWow! I love all that space that your mom has. I wish I had an island to bake on. We have a huge house and a small kitchen. Whomever built this house doesn't cook:) I clean up as I go but sometimes it just doesn't work out that way. All the cookies sound yummy. Hope you have a great Christmas.
ReplyDeleteWhy you took a picture of my mess on Saturday?
ReplyDeleteQuick, I am having a giveaway, it ends this evening.
Patti
Your mom's kitchen ROCKS!!! wow it is huge, I can totally see why you cook over there...and don't worry I make a mess too, especially when it is not my kitchen!! :) oh and btw, I hope you sent some goods my way...just saying! muwahhh, t
ReplyDeleteOoooh! Looks like fun to me. Personally I like to be neat in the kitchen but that's not always the case.
ReplyDeleteI love her kitchen SOOOO MUCH.
ReplyDelete