Poison Ivy, Flu, and Pumpkins.

Well.....the past few days have been interesting to say the least. We went thru a stomache bug last week, but it has re-apppeared it seems. I was up at 4am yesterday taking Hannah to the er, but not for the flu.....for poison ivy. The strip of trees behind our house is crazy bad with the crap. And of course it doesn't matter how much we tell them, the kids can't stay out of the trees. It's just too tempting to go explore. Trouble is, Hannah is super duper sensitive to the stuff. Sooooo.... She ends up breaking out in allergic rashes all over. Especially her face. It always takes steriods to clear it up. Well.....on the way home from the er she puked all over the floor board of our van. I thought it was from the ivy, but it was the stomache bug. She spent all day yesterday being sick. Over and over and over again. It was NOT fun. For her or any of us having to watch her deal with it. UGH! Anyway...she seems to be out of the woods (no pun intended...LOL).

Okay...anyone who knows me knows that I just LOVE fall. It is my favorite season. I really hate the summer so to come to fall is so lovely for me. I know that I bake all the time for my work, but when I hit autumn I really just get a real jones to do some real intense baking. Especially for myself and my family! I really get in the mood to do something with pumpkin. So....today I'm going to do some pumpkin bread I think. I have most of the stuff. I'm excited!
More later, gaters. K!

Rain, Pappa's Meatballs, and the broken desk

So, it's raining. Has been all weekend. That's completely ok with me!!! I love this kind of weather. It makes me all relaxed and calm. Not sure why, it just does. It also makes me want to cook and bake. Baking is out of the question cuz my oven is broken, but... I'm gonna cook! Caleb and I are breaking out a family favorite. Papa's Meatballs and Sauce!

Anyone that knows me knows that my father was my culinary inspiration. He started the whole thing! My best memories are all food related....hence my big rear end....LOL! One day I will post the essay I wrote in Culinary school about it. For now lets just say... Dad was it!!! He was the man when it came to food in my life. He wasn't a professional chef or anything, but boy could the man cook. He spent his last few years doing just that. And he couldn't have been happier. My family never had alot. We were, what you might say, functionally poor. But we always had great food. Daddy baked bread, and made sourdough pancakes, and homemade manacotti. He grew fresh veg in his various gardens and momma canned it all into salsa, jam, pickles and sour kraut. Anyway.....my point is actually that today Caleb and I are going to make Pappa's Meatballs. Pappa being what his grandkids all called him. He taught me meatballs. It was one of my favorite things to do with him and now it is one of my favorite things to do with Caleb. Not only are they the best meatballs you will ever eat they warm my heart every time I make them. And on this cool rainy day....we all need some warming up. I sure miss my daddy!

Anyway.....so, today is also cleaning day. I decided to get the kids into their collective rooms and gut them out and get them cleaned up. So, Caleb was in his room and I hear a crash and him yelp. His desk collapsed on him! UGH!!! Funny...but UGH!!! So now we are working on that problem. Mark is off to Lowe's to get some nails to put the desk back together with. And I'm about to start the meatballs. Kids are all cleaning and it's still raining. Gotta love it! I do!

More later, gaters. Kristen.

Sandwich Philosophy

Well, let's see, where should I begin? I suppose I should introduce myself first. Hi, I'm Kristen. I am a 41 year old mother of 4. And I love food. So much so that, at 39, I went back to school and got a culinary degree. I graduated with honors in August of 2008 and have been working as a chef and baker ever since. Right now I bake for an upscale restaurant in downtown Oklahoma City in Bricktown. It's called Nonna's. I just love it. But I have a dream. Actually, that is really where all this started. A dream......

A long time ago, in a land far away, Kodiak Island, Alaska actually. When I wasn't 41, more like 21, and only had one child, who is now full grown and out on his own, I started baking for the fun of it. I started to go through all my fathers cookbooks looking for fun and interesting things to both cook and bake. I xeroxed alot of the ones that interested me, cut them out and pasted them on cards to make a card file. This was before everyone had their own PCs and they could do all the neat-o things they can now. LOL!! I did all this because I wanted to have my own bakery/cafe someday. Well, 20 years and 3 more babies later, I still have that dream. I still want my own place. I got to thinking, a bit over 2 years ago, that if I was going to run my own food related business I should maybe get a bit of education about it. So I signed up and went to Culinary school. Thinking back on it now, I probably should have just gone and gotten a job in the industry, but I really did enjoy school, and am soooo glad I went. Well, just after graduation in August of 2008, my husband had a stroke. So, for now, I am working support our family. But the dream is still there. It is a dream I am striving at every day by learning and working hard. I am hoping this blog will be away of sharing and organizing my thoughts to get me moving more toward my dream.

Okay, I am sure you are asking, Why Sandwich Philosophy?, by now. Well.....it's pretty simple... I LOVE SANDWICHES!!!! To me there is nothing better in the world than to take a really nice bread and meat and sit down and fill your stomache with that which both feeds the belly and the soul for bread is the food of the soul, or so they say, LOL. So, in this journey, I will not only be exploring my dream but also sandwiches. I want to share my love of this simple, yet full filling food form. Cultures all over the world have some kind of sandwich. From the Gyro in Greece to the Baguette and hunk of cheese in France to the P.B.& J. in America. I will be eating, creating and dissecting these wonderfully delectable morsels of our collective bellies! I hope you will join me in my journey to a full tummy and a full filled dream.

More later gaters, K!