Welcome To My Oven

I'm someone that never tires of pulling out the mixing bowl, opening the fridge door, searching for ingredients, and spending all afternoon pulling delectable dishes (although more often sweet tidbits) out of the oven. After studying, I honestly love cooking as favorite hobby. Not only is cooking rewarding to the taste buds, it's very fulfilling to watch others enjoy the things you put love and energy into making.
The purpose of this somewhat unique blog post is to share a visual representation of some of the things in my family's kitchen, made by yours truly, during the month of January. Granted, I don't carry my camera around with me all the time, so this is just a highlight of some of the things I turned out. (I had quite a bit of "extra" time in January, hence baking and then taking pictures of what I made)

Plain and Onion-Sea Salt-Poppy Seed Bagels (extra brown for optimum toasty flavor) (that wasn't opium tasty flavor ;-) )

How about Cinnamon-Sugar?

Sunday morning Scones :-)

I'm not a fan of chocolate or carob (yay for me and for you since all of you get more that way), however, there are times I hanker for both. So, when I know I need to be healthy (that actually is how I feel all the time, but I sometimes am stubborn and rebellious) I make these amazing carob muffins. (I'll stop interrupting each sentence with side commentaries [consider them to be my thought bubbles- and for those of you that know me, you know that I insert ideas mid-sentence all the time])

I know these two photos are very much the same, but I had to share two because this way you'll ask for the recipe because you see twice as much goodness on this blog page.




I realize that these are pictures of exclusively baked sweet and savory things and metal objects (okay, there was one wood item on here). I am never as wowed by savory food as I am by sweet things. Once I feel like dragging my DSLR upstairs while I'm cooking soup or making a casserole, I'll dedicate another blog post to my friends food and fotography. :-D (I had to get some alliteration in there for my literature and grammar friends)
I may not know how to play soccer as well as the average American female growing up in the last twenty+ years, but I bet I can cook more than most of those soccer players. My mom always nit-picks on girls in the high schools that can play sports but can't cook when they get married, or on the college graduate wives that can't cook for their husbands on HGTV (home and garden improvement channel). I can cook so there. I could care less about you soccer ball, give me baseball, please. That's besides the point, though. Cooking is a lot of fun, and I get a lot of enjoyment out of. Having a relaxing activity (except for multiple boiling pots of water and noodles etc.) is a really nifty thing to have in life. Thanks for checking in on this posting. I've had fun taking pictures of some of my food. Hopefully I'll get some more good ones here sometime.
And I know, this wasn't how to cook 101 (deceiving title, but it looks really neat!), but it is a little taste of what can happen when you start cooking. The title of my blog post is the main theme -- Welcome to My Oven. This is what I do; maybe you can think about sharing what you do. Cooking is grand. We all live off of it, we all enjoy it, and we all like seeing tasty things (no, we all like eating tasty things!). Not to dwell on the stomach or taste buds unnecessarily here, rather, it's the things you can do with cooking that should be emphasized. I think it's a great tool to help other with. How often do you make something for a family member- don't they love it (if it is good :) )? Even if it isn't great, the effort and care that goes into the action means a lot. So, pull out your mixing bowls, measuring cups, ingredients -- see what you can do to bring a smile to your loved ones' faces!