Meet the Cook: Amanda

Say hello to Amanda from Central PA!

Food interests: cooking from scratch, cooking fast, simple.

Hobbies: cooking, canning, learning homesteading

Q. What are your favorite things to cook?
I love to cook soups, crock pot recipes–things that do not require me to follow a recipe! I am not the baker in the house, my Husband takes that title. Cooking to me is using what we have in the house and running with it!

Q. How/when did you learn to cook?
I learned to cook by reading tons of cookbooks and recipe websites. I knew the standard meatloaf, chicken and spaghetti meals, but nothing that creative… My family was my guinea pigs…and it worked!

Q. Tell us about some of your cooking triumphs.
I think knowing that my family likes and requests me to cook instead of wanting to eat out is the biggest triumph to me. I make a killer Amish Homemade Ham Pot Pie…the kids request it for their birthday meal.

Q. What was your most memorable cooking tragedy?
I once made stuffing in a large glass baking pan, took it out of the oven placed it on top of the stove, without realizing that I had a burner on. I walked into the living room and heard a huge bang–stuffing and glass was everywhere as the pan had exploded!

Q. Describe your kitchen. Do you love it, hate it, and why?
My kitchen is my favorite room in the house. I have red walls and it is kind of country themed. I have Fiesta Dinnerware from my Husband’s aunts and I love how all the colors are mixed up! I have a huge square on the wall painted with chalkboard paint so I can write messages or a weekly menu on it. I love love love chalkboard paint–I am trying to convince my Husband to let me paint the fridge with it next!

Q. Is your pantry organized and are your kitchen drawers tidy? We need to know.
Mmmmmm well- it depends! I think they are organized, since I know where everything is. Hahahah! But…they do need to be straightened up–I consider it a constant work in progress actually. I try to clean one shelf or drawer a week…sometimes that happens, sometimes it doesn’t.

I have a blog post on my messy kitchen table–A Clean Kitchen Table?

Q. Do you have any favorite family cooking traditions?
We can a lot of produce together, all summer and fall long. Our boys help by taste testing and peeling the veggies. It is very relaxing and fun through the summer and then all winter long we get to enjoy our bounty and hard work!

Q. What is the one gadget (or ten) you couldn’t do without in your kitchen?
I am not sure what I would do with out my rubber spatulas! Honestly, I was just thinking about that the other day. I love those things, I use them for everything–mixing, stirring, getting the last bits out of a jar, as a turner for my nonstick cook wear. I would miss them terribly, oh that and my Kitchen Aid Mixer!




Q. If you had to take one food to a deserted island, what would it be?
One? Ohhhhh noooo…I would need 3–Hotdogs, Diet Pepsi and Nachos!!


Q. What is your go-to comfort food?
I love, love, love soup. It is easy, it is filling and you do not need a recipe. It is cheap and can easily be made with whatever you have on hand!

Amanda showed us her experimenting in the kitchen in her first blog post.

Mandoori Chicken – An Experiment


See all of Amanda’s posts.

Amanda blogs at Becker Style.

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