About Me
Hello! My name is Nikki and I am here because I love to cook! I am also an artist who's primary medium is in oils. My main focus is on figurative subjects. Reading is my passion and music is my life! Also, I have an obsession with all things coffee. I live in Colorado where everyday is a new beautiful beginning. It's gorgeous here! I live with my husband and three (count em') three cats.
My favorite things to cook
My absolute favorite thing to cook is Thanksgiving dinner in it's entirety. I love a challenge and, that being said, I have recently taken up baking and it's coming along quite well. So, everything from cookies to breakfast burritos to enchiladas...I'm in! Cooking provides such a cozy and creative outlet for me.
My favorite family cooking traditions
The tradition is all things Italian. Like my mother and my gramma before her, we all tend to follow a recipe once and then make it our own ever after. Measuring does not really exist once we know what we're doing with a recipe. Getting to know spices and ingredients is part of the fun in combining flavors by ear later. I love that blurred line with being a creative cook.
My cooking triumphs
I did a spicy chocolate rub on a Thanksgiving turkey one year and even my Dad loved it! Another triumph was when I tried my hand at jeweled cookies for Christmas. My favorite have always been the almond sugar cookies with the jam on top and I didn't think it was possible to recreate that but it worked!
My cooking tragedies
The first time I made garlic mashed potatoes. I am a lover of garlic for sure! However, I didn't understand to cook the garlic with the potatoes and added a GENEROUS portion of loosely chopped garlic...raw. I still love garlic, I'm happy to say! Another tragedy was when I was in high school. I wanted to make cheese toast. All we had was an upright toaster. I used...wait for it...shredded cheese and then I put it all in, upright, into the toaster. I knew it was wrong and that it would not end well but I was determined to defy the laws of gravity and the rules of toasting cheese on bread. The toaster suffered greatly. And now it's a popular anecdote with my family. It was worth it for the laugh!
