Hi, I’m Kim

I am a self-taught. I am passionate about scratch cooking and baking!

I set a goal several years ago to make the majority of our meals at home, instead of choosing pre-made meals or restaurants. At first, it was difficult. But it made me stretch and look outside the box. In retrospect, I am grateful cooking and baking from scratch has become my norm.

I believe everyone can learn to cook amazing food at home. Sometimes it’s a great recipe that makes all the difference. And sometimes it is just knowing some tricks or having the right tools. A little success snowballs into confidence. I hope to provide what you need to take the complicated out of your journey in the kitchen—so you can provide savory and sweet food, with bold flavors and whole food ingredients, in YOUR kitchen for your family and friends. Food brings joy, togetherness, and love. Creating in the kitchen helps you center and regroup, and allows time to step away from the stresses of the day for just a moment.

My Baking Past

I am the oldest of three daughters. And baking was a part of my heritage. My earliest memories of my grandparents involve food: my maternal grandma was a school lunch cook and I remember visiting her and seeing huge pans of peanut butter bars in her kitchen. She even let me taste one! My paternal grandma taught me how to make pie crust.  When I stayed with her in the summer, we cooked a lot of things together, including homemade marshmallows. I even remember her sourdough crock and the smelly, gooey substance inside. Funny memories of a young kid—I love sourdough now!  In my own home, my mom loved to bake amazing foods to share with others. I remember fondly making cinnamon rolls to share with neighbors. I enjoyed being part of rolling the dough, spreading butter and sugar, and cutting the individual rolls with white string for the perfect cut! She also decorated amazing cakes, and it became my goal to decorate cakes as beautifully as she did. My dad was a regular in the kitchen on Sunday afternoons when he was making old-fashioned fudge. The smell of chocolate and sugar cooking on the stove remains nostalgic. I remember watching him test soft-ball stage by dipping a spoonful of the chocolate mixture in water and using his finger to create the “ball.” It took several dips until it was perfectly cooked… of course, someone had to taste test that ball of chocolate! After the long wait for the fudge to cool enough to beat it by hand, it was finally time to drop the fudge on wax paper and enjoy the melt-in-your mouth flavor. When there wasn’t fudge on Sunday afternoon, there were chocolate chip cookies baking in the oven. I still love cookie dough more than baked cookies!

As a young teenager, my mom informed me that I was the bread maker for the summer. Every week, she stood by me guiding my progress in developing loaves of bread for the family. We didn’t have a stand mixer… so I learned by hand. Fabulous experience! At age 14, I took my first cake decorating class at summer school with a friend. That Valentine’s Day we made mini cakes for all our friends. In college, I started making wedding cakes. And that passion continues to this day.

Love of Learning

I love learning to bake new things, so I have taken opportunities to attend recreational cooking classes through the years. Some of these classes include: stir-fry, cooked candy, cake decorating, wedding cakes, sugar and palette knife flowers, baguettes, macarons, sugar cookie decorating, sour dough, and recently sushi. Learning is limitless!

Cooking Evolution

It is good that in this life, we get time to BECOME. In my early life, I did learn about baking, but cooking was a different matter. When I was first married, my husband was definitely the cook of the family. I had the desserts covered, but vegetables??!!?? My husband teases me that I didn’t even know how to cook a hot dog…well, I grew up in a house of girls; we didn’t like hot dogs!! But through time, and raising four hungry boys, I became the cook of the family. Practice, plus a desire to figure out how to make fast, healthy, and delicious meals, stretched my skills. That goal I mentioned at the beginning, making dinner from scratch every night, made all the difference in my skills and my desire to cook more. I still love to bake, but I now love to cook too. My husband says he lost a corner of his man-card when I became a better barbequer than him! I grew up thinking meat and potatoes was the only meal choice, but a diversity of ethnic foods opened my eyes to possibilities in the kitchen. I thrill in figuring out the recipe for local cuisine specialties in places we have lived and visited. When I can’t get the foods I love any other way… I figure out the recipe! My recent food goal is to use whole foods, fresh herbs and spices and a combination of bold flavors which create a depth of taste; I love tasting several flavors working together and coming alive in my mouth!

During 2020, we were living in Luxembourg (Europe). It became another inflection point in my personal cooking journey. In Luxembourg, COVID meant closed borders, closed restaurants, one family member in the grocery store, and shopping less frequently. In addition to not finding some familiar US ingredients, I had to learn new grocery store norms in a new language and in a pandemic atmosphere. I also needed basic recipes for everyday foods, replacements for things like cream of chicken soup, as well as seasoning combinations for things like tacos or pasta sauce. Rather than discourage me, the challenges fueled my creative passion. I became a big fan of my recipe app for storing and finding new recipes. I used my “lock down” time to test out new recipes for dinner with all the fresh new ingredients I found. I learned to use rhubarb, passion fruit, apricots, cabbage varieties, amazing cheeses, fresh ground sausage, living yeast, and different textures of flour and sugar. I tested new baking recipes for desserts I could share with neighbors I couldn’t meet in social gatherings. My kitchen became my place for creating, for peace, for joy.

Now. Today.

And now I want to share my passion with you. I love creating food with fresh ingredients and bold flavor combinations. I delight in creating fun, indulgent desserts in an uncomplicated, you-can-do-it way. I want to share recipes and techniques to make it simpler for you to delve into scratch cooking. I love enabling you to find joy and confidence in the kitchen. Stretch your cooking skills with my help and find passion in creating delicious food.