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Bates Hamburgers and Fries are the best! Keith, little Baum and I enjoyed a delicious dinner last night. This was a special treat! There is just something about their burgers. Actually the whole experience is fun. Bates is a tiny hamburger stand in Livonia. If you want to order takeout, you wait in a 8x4 porch type area with a window into the kitchen where you can see them cooking the burgers and fries. The menu is so simple. Another plus. Simple is good. They take your order and when it's ready, hand you a white bag filled with burgers and another one for fries. Do you want 6 or 12 burgers? Plain or cheese? Yummmm!!!

Way Back When-sday

Again, another Capri-Kel addition. She is such an inspiration! Speaking of inspiration, my Mom said I am inspiring her to cook. Well, to be honest, it all began with her many years ago.
The first picture is my Mom with my brother and me. That was taken in Atlanta when I was 6. We lived there for 4 years. I had to include that so you could see a picture of my Mom!!
She made the most awesome castle birthday cake. I think her specialty is baked goods. I also remember the chocolate sheet cake she used to make when I was a teenager. And when she POURED the chocolate icing on the cake it just leaked right off the side of the pan and I had the privelege of cleaning it up. Always had that most awesome privelege!! Anyway, the second picture is from my 9th birthday. Bet you hadn't guessed that! That's my Dad and my brother. We lived in Philadelphia at the time and see that wallpaper? it was so awesome. I love textures and that wallpaper had fruit on it that had a velvet feel to part of it. I also hate textures at the same time. But that's just another of those things about me. Hey, this was 1976. That was an awesome year to live in Philadelphia! I believe it was a huge celebration year for the Bicentennial! For those of you more versed in history, feel free to correct me.
Capri Kel would be proud to know that I was a huge fan of Laura Ingalls as well. See my hair? It was from those pioneer days.

The Way to Cook Inspired by Julia Child

I have found myself really enjoying learning to cook. It seems that it's been in me for many years but life has been full and it hadn't seemed like something I had time to pursue. Til this past summer when I felt discouraged with menu planning and my lack of creativity...I prayed that God would please help me be inspired.
Well, I had no idea that shortly after that, the movie "Julie and Julia" came out. Wow! I pulled out my cookbook "The Way to Cook" by Julia Child and asked my daughter if she would like to begin some cooking from there. I'll share pictures one day from those times. For now, I want to introduce my most recent joy: Cooking!
I'm learning to enjoy wandering through the fruits and vegetable section at the grocery store. Finding new ingredients like leeks to cook with.
Today I made Chicken Kiev for lunch. Mmmmm... it was so good. I love something baked in the oven on a winter Sunday. The recipe called for 1 1/2 sticks of butter. I used 1/2 of that. I'm sure I could use even less, but that was a good start. That recipe was from the classic Better Homes and Gardens checkered cookbook!
I'm looking forward to experimenting a bit with our microwave-making more than popcorn and reheating food.
And sometime I'll share about the soups I've been making from our church's soup kitchen cookbook. Yum! Those have warmed up some cold and dreary days.

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Well, I'm so inspired by my friend that I'm going to get going again on this blog which I barely started on!
So, she wanted to know if anyone wanted to join her in taking 1 picture a week for the year. I will attempt to do that. But first I must get our camera hooked up to our computer. Accomplished. Amazing.
Picture 1 is of all of us on 12/28/09 (okay, that's last year, but I think that's pretty close!)
Picture 2 is the littlest Baum sitting outside of our "tent" yesterday, 1/11/10. I remember doing that with our older 2 when they were her age. That was a long time ago!