Welcome to Court St. Kitchen

I’ve been itching to blog for a while now and even made a feeble attempt at it last year here. I found that I enjoyed blogging but I was not quite sure of my direction as I did it. This new, and hopefully, improved blog is my attempt at blogging with a more distinct idea.


When I step into my kitchen I find myself pulled in many directions. I love to bake. I like to cook. I am trying to maintain a 65 pound weight loss. I want to be aware of where my food has come from and how it’s come to be in my kitchen.


Phew.


The balance I try to maintain in the kitchen can be tricky. My love of baking and like of cooking is what lead to my need to lose 65 pounds. For the most part I make food that is better for us but I still love to bake and cook “real” versions of all the foods that got me into trouble.


My most recent concern is that of where my food has come from. This, I have to say, is even more tricky than balancing what I do in my kitchen to ensure that I do not gain back my 65 pounds. I often find myself in a complete “fail” when it comes to this but I have changed a lot of things that make me feel like I am at least making an attempt to be more conscious of my food and the road it’s taken to get to my plate.


I will explore all of this in my blog entries and share with you how I am trying to maintain this balance. I hope that you will bear with me as I hone my blogging and photography skills…neither are very polished but with practice, I hope that my blogs will become more and more enjoyable to read!


Thanks for stopping by and I hope that you will be back to see how I’m doing with my balancing act!



By the way….today I am making my son’s birthday cake. Last year it was a completely homemade chocolate peanut butter monster of a cake and it was something I was so proud that I made from scratch. This year, he wants a root beer cake. It’s SO the opposite of last year. A white cake mix, root beer with high fructose corn syrup…ugh.

However, for the frosting I am using Spectrum Organic Non-Hydrogenated Shortening that is made from mechanically expressed organic palm oil.  I am also using eggs that I purchased from a farm that is 1.16 miles from my house.  Oh yeah, I am also using expeller pressed safflower oil as well. This is an example of my balance. I could have made better choices overall and here’s what my thought process has been about this cake:


-I could make the cake from scratch but as I hunt for root beer cakes, most are based with a cake mix. I could have gotten an organic cake mix or one, like from Trader Joe’s, that didn’t have a lot of mystery ingredients in it. However, when I made my trek to Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s last weekend it had not even crossed my mind. I’d have to drive 13 miles back to get there so it seemed like not the best idea since I was just there and I only needed a cake mix.


-I could have stopped off at the natural food section of one of the local supermarkets but the cost of their natural food items are ridiculously over-priced and I have a hard time handing over the money for them. I always walk through those sections when I go in there for something else and it really sickens me that with most items, they are MORE expensive than Whole Foods, who is of course notorious for their higher than average prices.


-The root beer bothers me because I have really tried to cut out high fructose corn syrup. However, the same thing applies. I could have used cane sugar soda but to buy it locally would cost way more than I care to spend and while I suppose my trip to WF’s and TJ’s would not only be for cake, but for root beer too, it still seemed an awful lot of travel for 2 items!


You can see that it’s a balance. I want to find myself in the middle. I cannot be that person who shops exclusively with all those buzz words…organic, non-gmo, grain-fed, etc. because of the sheer cost of it all. However, when and where I can…and apparently, when I happen to think of it as in the case of the cake…I try to make the “better” choice.


This cake is an example of what I try to do and I have to say that usually I do fare a bit better than the choices I ended up making. It won’t be good for me as far as watching my weight and the cake mix and soda are not my first choice in ingredients but I was able to at least pull out my “better” choice shortening to make the frosting with.


I will post some pictures of the cake after it’s made and we cut into it. I will probably do a post about the making of it. As bad “not-good-for-you” as it is, I am excited to be making it. I saw the idea at Allrecipes.com and knew as soon as I saw it that I’d use that as an inspiration to do my own thing with it.