About

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. A little more than a year later, on April 4, 2008, I was bowled over to learn 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 Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC so combining food with politics makes perfect sense to me. Where is it written that people who like to cook don’t care about the world and vice versa?  We cook, we bake, we read, we think, we vote.

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, categories and subcategories. The How-To page is full of good stuff. The widgets and incoming RSS feeds at the bottom of the sidebar provide fresh recipes, political headlines and book reviews. I’m a voracious reader and these are some of my favorite books; click on top to see them all.

I lived in New Hampshire, home of the first Presidential primary, for a few years. 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. It snows about six months a year there. The Weather Pixie on the left 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. Even though I’m not there anymore, I’m leaving the Pixie and adding one for Reagan National Airport in DC, where it’s like a sauna half the year. The contrasts can be striking and a good reminder why my imaginary bumper sticker would say So Over New England.

Transparency: If you’re ever in the market for a web host, please consider DreamHost, which I’m very satisfied with. And if you go there by clicking on the icon down there or in the sidebar, not only will I get some credit if you sign up through my link, you will get the deals I chose for this offer, including a discount, free domain registration (the first year), unlimited free subdomains, domain email and unlimited storage and bandwidth. I hate seeing little logos that lead to a referral link without that information being disclosed, no matter how small the amount is. I never mind giving someone my few pennies — who doesn’t welcome them these days? — but all I’d like is honesty in return. If that bothers you too, please tuck away in your mind who was honest with you if you shop around for hosting. Some might not tell you everything. I just did.