Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you all had a great holiday! I adore Thanksgiving! I love turkey and stuffing. I love the whole family getting together. Most people like the family aspect, but I know that some people aren't so fond of the cooking aspect, but the truth is, I love to cook. A certain friend finds the fact I love hanging out in my kitchen rather suspect. The idea is foreign to her. She prefers her food from her favorite restaurant. I can't help it, I like cooking. I like fudging recipes, adding more of this and less of that. I love the smell as the food cooks. Chocolate Chip Cookies, Chicken Noodle Soup, fresh bread...they're all smells that warm a house! And of course, I don't mind the eating! LOL

I don't know that I realized how much of a cook I was until we had our kitchen renovated in the fall of 2004. We'd bought my husband's family home, a place of so many happy memories, but a house with the smallest kitchen in the history of kitchens. I mean, it was tiny. I used to say that you could spit and hit pretty much every surface, not that I spit in the kitchen, but you get an idea of how small it was. LOL One night, BA (before addition), I was baking. I leaned down to open the oven, and hit my butt on the counter behind me. I moaned that it was a symptom of the smallest kitchen in the world, but my husband–who likes to live dangerously on occasion–implied that it possibly wasn't the kitchen but the size of my butt. Hurmph. He thought he was quite amusing. Me? Not so much! LOL

Anyway, we added on a ten by twelve addition, with a huge island, tons of counter space. We connected it into the existing family room. What a great living space. It's gorgeous. But it didn't come easy. It was four months in the making. That's months, as in weeks and weeks of not cooking. Months of eating out. That's when I realized I was indeed a cook! It got to the point that I'd ask the kids where they wanted to eat out at and the only response was groans. Even McDonalds lost its magic.

After the kitchen was redone, I went on a cooking spree to end all cooking sprees. I invested in new cookbooks. I got a subscription to "Cooking Light." Yep. I was more of a cook than ever. On that note, tonight, being a bit turkeyed out, I'm making a pork roll, homemade sauerkraut (cooked in beer). I buy both the sauerkraut and pork at a local meat market. If you're ever in Erie, PA, try Urbaniak's meat market. It's got an old world feel, where the people know your name and take a great deal of pride in their business. Okay, back to the menu, sauerkraut, pork, mashed potatoes and apple crisp. We picked up a twenty pound bag of potatoes yesterday from a farm out by our camp, and the apples come from Fuhrman's Cider Mill, another Erie landmark. I'm not just someone who loves to cook, I'm someone who takes a great deal of pride in my hometown! I guess it's good that you learn that early on in my blogging!

While, I don't have pictures of Urbaniaks or Fuhrman's Cider Mill, I do have a number of pictures from Erie on my page. You can visit at http://www.hollyjacobs.com/PS.htm. And if you're looking for something new to try in the kitchen, buy some sauerkraut (I know, you can't get it at Urbaniak's, but try one of the refrigerated varieties in your neighborhood grocery store), toss it in your crock pot with a can of beer...doesn't matter what kind, whatever's your favorite. Cook it for at least two or three hours. The beer mellows the sourness. It's great with pork, or on hotdogs!

Hope you have a week filled with cooking, hometown pleasures and family! Of course, as a writer, I should probably also hope the week is filled with good books!

~Holly