Baking/Cooking is a tasty obsession

I don't know if its because I'm bored, or I need a little excitement in my life, but I've become more and more interested in baking and cooking.  But not just interested, more like excited.  Like, I get excited about looking up new recipes to try, utilizing wonderful baking and cooking blogs.  Is there something wrong with me? Probably.  I've never pretended to be entirely normal.  But that would be lame, right? So anyway, I find these recipes with beautiful illustrations and jot them down, drag Jared to the grocery store, and work my experiments in the kitchen, often late into the night (for me, that means around midnight.)  This past week I made a delicious Mexican Casserole, I nurtured a homemade Beef Stroganoff, and lastly, last night I made some pretty awesome Fresh Strawberry Bread.  Jared is the only one who can attest to the dinners, but I've gotten some pretty good feedback from my co-workers on the strawberry bread.  Or maybe they lied. Either way, I choose to take the compliments.


So, in preparation to begin my bread adventure, I laid out all the ingredients and realized my obsession with Great Value brand products.  Wal-Mart brand, for those non-Arkansans/purveyors of regular grocery stores.  Wal-Mart is king around here, especially since there aren't really any other comparable options.  But hey, its good, and its cheap! A newly married's friend.  Foodwise, that is.

While I'm diligently mixing and chopping, I look up from my "work" to see what the rest of my little family is doing, and I find Jared enjoying his Christmas present, boxing away on our Wii and MiMi, our little fur child, hoping I'm going to drop something on the floor for her to eat.

She always thinks she wants what I'm making, but I can't seem to convince her that I don't live off lunchmeat (her favorite).  Poor mimi.  After much persistence I gave her a small piece of strawberry, and she lunged, then recoiled, at my offering.  Oh well.







So, the finished product smelled heavenly, tasted pretty fantastic, and photographed poorly.  Can't win them all I guess.  But, other people ate it, even asked for some, without me pushing it on them or without them feeling like they have to lie to me.  I think.  Well, in one day I'm already down half a loaf, so if you want to come by and make up your own mind, you'd better do it fast.