We are working moms, not cooks. Neither of us has any formal cooking experience whatsoever. We are not authorities on anything fancy, or any particular methods. We have never been to cooking school.
But, we are busy moms with lots of mouths to feed. We want our kids to have diverse tastes and not have any major nutritional deficiencies. We don't believe in spending a ton on groceries, nor do we buy a lot of processed foods, but we will shortcut here and there. Not everything has to be from scratch, especially if we have 20 minutes to get something good on the table. We buy in bulk, we use coupons, and much to my husband's chagrin, I love a good meat and seafood sale. We stock our freezers. We love organic, fresh tasting flavorful food, but we also won't pay through the nose for it. We buy extra when it's on sale, and realize that there is a fine line between a well-stocked pantry and being a hoarder. A very fine line. We try to subtly keep each other in check about these sorts of things. So far, neither of us is insane or extreme. We are proud of that.
We like the challenge of trying to come up with a great dish when we have 4 cans of, say, pureed pumpkin that we found in the back of the cupboard. (Pumpkin pie, soup, experimental pasta, scones!) We also feel an incredible amount of relief that we have used up 4 cans of pureed pumpkin, because that means we are not pumpkin hoarders.
We buy in bulk and freeze in small batches (chicken, ground beef, shredded cheese). We frequent Costco. We have both watched our kids' appetites increase as they get older, and we worry a little about our grocery bill when they hit their tween/teen years. We go through a lot of milk and eggs. A lot. I have an extra refrigerator in my garage, and 2 deep freezers. I wish I were exaggerating.
We test things out on our kids. My kids tend to be generally receptive to most things except shrimp and mushrooms or tomatoes and peppers. Claire has one picky eater and one adventurous eater. We both obsess about getting well-balanced, nutritious food into our children. If our kids don't like something, we keep trying. Sometimes the husbands are picky, too.
Mainly, we love cooking. We love eating. And we love feeding people that we love things that we've cooked. We hope you do too, and at the very least, you'll have a good meal or two as a result of this blog.
