From Scratch

Welcome to From Scratch and thanks for taking the time to stop by. I am ella, aka ellaella and that’s a long story we don’t need to go into. This was my first blog and I was amazed and gratified to learn it was tagged for a Thinking Blogger Award after only six weeks. Not quite one year later, on April 4, 2008, I was absolutely bowled over to discover in comments that From Scratch had won a Blog of the Day Award. My thanks again.

I’m both a foodie and a news junkie, a former msm journalist living in the state with the first Presidential primary, so combining food with politics makes perfect sense to me.  And where is it written that people who like to cook don’t care who’s leading the country? We cook, we bake, we read, we think, we vote. By the same token, where is it written that people who are politically aware don’t like to cook?

So. If you think canned cream of mushroom soup belongs on the supermarket shelf and not in recipes, pull up a chair. If your idea of a cake from scratch begins with flour and not a mix, have some coffee and stay awhile. I’m a scratch cook and baker and took the Pastry and Baking Intensives at New York’s Institute of Culinary Education when I lived in Manhattan. The program director is the brilliant Nick Malgieri, and if you’re new to baking, his book, How to Bake, is a great place to start. 

Yes, I’m busy just as you are and on a budget, but I know making things from scratch does not have to involve an inordinate amount of time and ingredients and it doesn’t have to be expensive. In fact, some of the most expensive food at the supermarket is junk food. Does that mean I consider boxed meals and “helpers” to be junk food? Well, yes I do. I also understand why some people resort to them. Whatever meets one’s needs. But if you have options and have never tried, say, a pie crust from scratch or a soup, I hope to help show you how quick and easy it can be.

So please enjoy my little corner of the blogosphere; check out the archive, useful links and categories too. The widgets and incoming RSS feeds at the bottom of the sidebar provide fresh recipes and food-related articles, political headlines and book reviews. I’m a voracious reader and these are some of my favorite books. Click on My Library to see them all and click away without wondering if I’m making money from this — I am not! Someday I might have a little Amazon store for kitchen things but this is not that day. (Disclosure: I think the Library Thing people do get a few pennies if you buy from their link, but their service is free and they have web bills too. You can always see more about a book by clicking on My Library then choosing your retailer on your own if you wish to buy.)

Here in New Hampshire, the official state motto is Live Free or Die. The unofficial motto is Don’t Try Messin’ With Our Primary. State bumper sticker: Live, Freeze and Die. The Weather Pixie shows the often-brutal conditions atop Mt. Washington, in the heart of New Hampshire’s White Mountains. It’s the highest peak in the Northeast US, with an elevation of 6288 feet.