Foodie Survey

I'm a stay-at-home mom who loves to bake, though my husband doesn't like sweets, so I'm usually only able to bake when we're having guests (but I always like to have a batch of something sweet in the kitchen for me to snack on). We're pesco vegetarian and we like to eat healthy (most of the time, anyways!). I've recently tried to incorporate a lot more tofu in our diet, which seems to be going well so far. My son can be a little bit of a picky eater, but his taste for tofu has made me branch out with tofu recipes... plus, it's a pretty cheap protein! I'm really trying to be better about making inexpensive meals, which can be a challenge sometimes, but I'm usually up for it.

My favorite things to cook
Vegetarian taco salad (Haystacks!), salads, panzanella, tofu tacos, magic bars, baked salmon, smoothies, black beans, cous cous, apple crisp, twice baked potatoes, cakes, milk chocolate florentines,spaghetti sauce (saves me so much money, too!), alfredo sauce

My favorite family cooking traditions
My Mom, little brother, and I always baked Christmas cookies together when I was growing up. Christmas time is the only time I bake bon-bons, and it doesn't feel complete without them! Now that I'm out in my own home, my husband and I do the Christmas baking together. It's one of the only times I can get him to stay with me in the kitchen. Wednesdays are haystack day! We have vegetarian taco salad once a week, because in college they served haystacks for lunch every Wednesday. (We went to a vegetarian school) Other than that, I haven't really established much in the way of traditions on my own yet, as we're still a young family.

My cooking triumphs
Probably the first time I made a roux, oh, and the first time I properly tempered chocolate (that took many tries!) Anytime I make something that my son likes, I'm happy!

My cooking tragedies
Actually, I was baking milk chocolate florentines one time and mixed all the ingredients for the cookies, put a batch in the oven, and they were spreading wayyyy more than usual... it was one big cookie on the cookie sheet. I put another pan in and it did the same thing. So, I just started crying because I went back over the recipe many times and couldn't see anything I'd left out. My mom came home and said okay, we'll just start a new batch. So, I was getting all the ingredients into my bowls and she was sort of looking over my shoulder to make sure things were going well. When I read that I needed flour, I went to the cabinet, got out the canister that I'd used in my last batch and my mom asked what I needed that for. I told her the recipe called for flour. She informed me that I didn't have the flour, but the powdered sugar! I was relieved to have found out where I'd gone wrong before, but felt pretty silly at the same time.