They hung my momma from a telephone pole, cause she baked my pa into a casserole

Finally i put my hands to good use. instead of pounding away at the keys on my cell, fumbling my way through t9 to send endless texts, i actually baked some pecan tassies. My mother's green recipe book opens easily to my grandmothers handwritten notes, stuffed into it's plastic sleeve.

Pressing out the tiny cups is therapeutic, forming each one so the sides are high enough to contain the pecans and filling. I mean come on, i have to eat the ones that don't come out right so i've got to get them right. I got the taste down a while back and changed up a little of how it comes together in the end from what my grandmother did. Now i work on making them actually look good.

As a novice cook and baker, i tend to worry more if things are edible and less about how pretty they look. I've baked much more than actually cooking dinner. All of it started not that long ago, not long after the divorce.

I'd gone through buying stuff to relieve my sorrows. that only works so long on a budget anyway. For some reason i watch tons of cooking shows on television. I remember doing this even when i was young and there was no Food Network or cable even! The Frugal Gourmet was a really interesting ( eccentric ) man on PBS who cooked dishes and explained where they came from originally and why we should eat them. Revolutionary at the time i guess. So, fast forward present day and i'm glutted with more cooking shows than i can watch and i decided to see if i had actually picked anything up from all that tv.

Kick open the pantry and see the old faithful box of brownie mix. throw in a giant sized chocolate, toffee bar and i've somehow made it, um, special. So, did that. Took it to work and fed the masses. They enjoyed it but i felt like, if it was good that was sort of too easy. I wanted to make something from 'scratch', whatever that meant.

"Who cares?" they said, " nobody can tell the difference anyway." I thought, no way. So, in my practice at the time of spending money to bring happiness i ran to target and bought a stand mixer. Somehow, i came across a Martha Stewart video about waffle cookies. I got a waffle iron from my grandmother a few years back so i thought why not. Armed with the stand mixer, waffle iron, an odd ingredient or two, and her video, i was off! A new hobby was born. Now i cook christmas dinner for the family and a few friends and bake a couple of times a month, cakes, pies, cookies, blah, blah, blah. it's fun.

The tassies came out really well tonight. I only ruined one or two, and forgot to set the timer altogether. Sometimes i feel as blond as i look. If i could figure out how to post a picture on here i'd show them to you.

oh and i figured out how to finally use a loaf of bread before it goes bad. I just need to invite my niece over and she helps me eat it for a snack! She's nearly two but growing like a weed, it's crazy. Not only that but my nephew will be here in just a few weeks, my baby brother with two kids, wildness.

tio