Kitchen Questionaire

Saw this at Meredith's site and thought it looked fun:

1. How many meals does most of your family eat at home each week? HOw many are in your family?
I try to do 18-20 meals in home. The only ones out are my Tuesday lunch with my Mom and sister and an occasional pick-up of chicken nuggets somewhere for Noelle if I'm trying to get errands run. Four in our family.

2. How many cookbooks do you own? How often do you refer to a cookbook each week?
Twenty-two. My Better Homes and Garden and Miserly Meals sit on a ledge in my kitchen for easy access and the others are on the bookshelf. I probably refer to them 2-3 times per week.

4. Do you collect recipes from other sources?
I subscribe to the Menus for Moms e-newsletter and get some from there. Others I'll pick up randomly, no real set place I find them.

5. How do you store those recipes?
I have a Filemaker Pro database that I built that has all my recipes in it. That way I can search by ingredient or catagory or whatever. It took forever to initially do, but I started it right after Noelle was born and worked on it bit by bit.

7. Is there a particular ethnic style or flavor that predominates in your cooking? If so, what is it?
When I'm not pregnant, Weight Watcher recipes seem to dominate. Light cooking, lots of veggies. Otherwise, I seem to specialize in soups and crockpot cooking.

8. What's your favorite kitchen task related to meal planning and preparation?
Planning the meals, making my grocery list and organizing that kind of stuff. I also like the actual preparation of the meals, too, but I really like planning them. :-)

9. What's your least favorite part?
Well, I really don't mind cleanup (and I don't have a dishwasher), but I don't enjoy scrubbing the big pots and pans I use. I usually end up letting them soak overnight if they are really bad and then they are a breeze to clean first thing in the a.m.

10. Do you plan menus before you shop?
Yes! It has helped immensely in saving money and easing my frustration about what to make for dinner.

11. What are your three favorite kitchen tools or appliances?
My iced tea maker, my stove (with flat top burners and oven timer), and lots of paring knives. I always have one handy.

12. If you could buy one new thing for your kitchen, money was no object, and space not an issue, what would you most like to have?
A kitchen island for more counter space in the middle of the room.

13. Since money and space probably are objects, what are you most likely to buy next?
I'm slowly replacing my big utensils that sit on the counter (spatulas, measuring cups, etc.) The ones that have either been handed down from my Mom or Grandma and are old and falling apart.

14. Do you have a separate freezer for storage?
Yes.

15. Grocery shop alone or with others?
With others if you include Noelle, and soon to include Natalie on those trips. :-)

16. How many meatless main dish meals do you fix in a week?
Maybe 1-2. I have several soup recipes that I can make with or without meat, and have been known to substitute veggie meat in place.

17. If you have a decorating theme in your kitchen, what is it?
The kitchen is pretty much all white, but I try to highlight with red utensils and I have a red shelf that Travis built me.

18. What's the first thing you ever learned to cook, and how old were you?
I think it was this dish called Taco Rice Skillet. Ground beef, rice, tomato sauce served with lettuce and cheese.

19. How did you learn to cook?
When I was in high school, my Mom went back to work to start saving money for college for me and my sister. My sister and I were assigned weeks that it was our responsibility to cook and we alternated weeks. I tended to experiment a lot with different recipes.

20. Tag two other people to play.
Ummmm, how about Misty and Dawn. :-)