I love restaurant food. I love my food to be covered in cheese and grease and contain magic-restaurant calories and be made by someone else and brought out to me. Increasingly, I’m less interested in the part where it’s made by someone else. I really enjoy being at home, and I really want to know what’s in my food (even if it’s cheese and grease). I want to save money by making things at home. All sorts of reasons. Sometimes this leads to frustration, though, as the stuff at home tends to be “healthier”, and doesn’t always satisfy me when I have a craving for junk food.

The other night, I was hungering for something restaurant-y, but I didn’t want to head out to an actual restaurant to get it. I opened up my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook determined to make myself something yummy. I don’t have very much experience cooking, but I was sure I could find something. The very first item in the very first section (appetizers) was pizza rolls. Ah ha! Cheese! Meat! Bread! Hard to go wrong.

Every time Joshua or I makes something homemade (usually Joshua) that I’ve only ever purchased from elsewhere, I am amazed. Every time we go shopping, I buy bagels. I really like having them for breakfast and sometimes as snacks. This time when I went to reach for them, Joshua stopped me and said this would be the week we made them at home.

Here at The Wallow, a thing or two has been happening in the kitchen. I’ve been getting used to having an electric stove, but I also got a gas outdoor grill, so there’s also been some grilling out. I made amazingly yummy chicken drumsticks on my first attempt at grilling.

Joshua is the primary yummy-maker in our kitchen, though. We were both so excited when he made the first loaf of bread in the new house:

Next summer when we have cucumbers emerging from our garden, I hope to make pickles! I simply love pickles and can’t wait to get into creating them myself. Here’s a comic from cartoonist Lucy Knisley that is a fun, inspiring instructional on pickle-making.