About

I have a picture of myself as a little girl, sitting on the counter, licking the whisk from making brownies, with batter all over my face.  Nothing made me happier than being in the kitchen all day with the oven on, mixing a few ingredients together, making something delicious.  Food has always been a source of fond memories for me; Christmas, Easter, birthdays, all holidays really, revolved around food in my family.  Christmas isn’t complete without Grandma’s pierogis, Mom’s cutout sugar cookies, or Mom-mom’s jelly thumbprints.  I can always count on great food whenever my family gets together.  As a little kid, I always spent hours in the kitchen, covered in flour, baking with my mom.  My mom is undoubtedly the best baker in the world even if I am a tiny bit biased.  Being from Boyertown, a small town in Pennsylvania, there isn’t much to do for fun, so baking became my hobby. 

            My family has a tradition of making cutout sugar cookies for everyone as Christmas presents.  We would all gather around the kitchen table and take our places.   Christmas music was playing in the background, with the scent of vanilla in the air.  My mom would roll out the dough, while my brother cutout Christmas trees, toy soldiers, gingerbread man, and present shaped cookies.  I had the best job, Head Sprinkler, putting all colored sugar crystals and jimmies on the cookies.  When I was young I took that job seriously, it was no joke!  My dad’s only job was to be the taste taster.  My dad, brother, and I would all wait until the cookies were just golden brown and you could smell the sugar caramelizing in the oven.  We couldn’t even wait for them to cool!  A glass of cold milk with a chewy, warm cookie was all I needed.  This tradition still lives on today and it just does not feel like Christmas until we mixing the cookie dough.

            The Haas Cookie Extravaganza is what led me to choose Culinary Arts as my major at Drexel University.  With this blog, I hope to spark the inner scratch baker in everyone.  I will be posting recipes, articles, and even comparing scratch baked goods with those from a box.  All in hopes of converting the world to scratch bakers.  I am a self-professed scratch baking snob and wouldn’t be caught with a boxed cake mix.  Scratch baking is just as important as chefs locally sourcing their produce and meats.  Don’t you want to know exactly what is in your food?  Baking may be a science, but it doesn’t have to be intimidating.  People are used to going to the store and buying either a premade cake, which is full of sugar, or a box mix, which is full of preservatives.  All you need is flour, sugar, eggs, butter, and vanilla to bake.