Tired ramblings - HA

I love cookbooks - old ones, new ones - you name it. I have so many that you would think I cook every minute of every day. Hardly! I like to cook a lot, but our kitchen is not the largest and most suitable place to do much in the way of cooking. Go figure. My most favorite thing is to bake. The local thrift stores and yard sales are good places to acquire the more unusual cookbooks. I recently got one just for Jello recipes. Some good looking desserts in that one. Once we move to our new home, I will have a very large kitchen. We're thinking we might even get a new stove with a double oven. That's when I will put those many cookbooks to good use. You can bet on that. I plan on baking some creative things and entering them in the local County Fair. Might win a ribbon or two.

Some of the really older cookbooks have some great recipes in them. The challenge is to find the ingredients listed. Some of the things mentioned don't seem to be around anymore. I guess that's when the creativity will come in - or maybe a recipe won't be attempted. We'll see.

I love to decorate cakes and make chocolate suckers. I have a large selection of cake pans and sucker molds that I have acquired over the years. My sister started me in this hobby. She took classes and then I did the same. I could prepare a cake or sucker for just about any occasion, I swear. Once you start looking at what's available, you see just how varied the supplies are. I just look forward to the day I have the room to really utilize all my pans and molds again. I've really put that all on the back burner for a long time. No reason really, guess it's that darn small kitchen.

At the holidays, decorating gingerbread houses is another fun thing we do. This was started as a family tradition. However with some of us moving away, and losing others, the tradition is not quite the same. A few of us still get together and keep the festivities going. It's just so darn much fun to decorate those cute little brown buildings! Once the stores put out the holiday candy, I try to buy about anything that is colorful or red & green. I generally use this candy year after year and it really adds up. It's fun to have such a large variety to decorate with, lots more options.