When I was a little girl, I would pour a bowl of dry cereal, cover it with chocolate syrup, globs of peanut butter, and sprinkles and enjoy a ‘Cheerio Sundae’ while watching Saturday morning cartoons. Sometimes, if we had some on hand, I’d add a dollop of non-dairy whipped topping. Mmm. Non-dairy whipped goodness.
Most kids play with their food. But then we grow up and food preparation becomes cooking. And cooking is work. Work is hard, serious stuff. So lots of people–especially those who really do work all day long–proclaim ‘I don’t cook’ and heat up a frozen meal or order takeout.
But it doesn’t have to be that way.
I’m here to encourage everyone to play with their food.
Here on Mashed Potato Castles, I will help you have more fun in the kitchen by sharing tips, tricks, recipes, tools, and resources which will bring the joy back to your cooking. Or, you know–encourage you to start cooking in the first place. It’ll be fun. I promise.
So follow along (there’s a subscribe button around here somewhere) to enjoy weekly posts appearing across a variety of series, including but not limited to…
No Measure Meals
Have you ever seen a kid in a sand box with a measure cup and a set of teaspoons? No. You haven’t. And you won’t find any pesky measuring devices here either. I’ll show you how to throw a great meal together without the use of math of any kind. You’re welcome.
The Best Laid Plans
Remember that time you tried to bake a cake but it stuck to the pan and you ended up scooping it out with your hands and throwing it across the kitchen like a small child having a supermarket checkout line breakdown? No? You mean that was only me? Oh well. Either way, I’ll share my dinner fails with you in this series. And yes, there will be photos.
Ma Necessity
Don’t have that fancy tool or ingredient you think you need to complete a recipe? I’ll show you how to make do with what you do have. Kids build entire fortresses out of couch cushions and blankets. You can roll out a pie crust with a rocks glass.
Food Unfiltered
Food bloggers are awesome (heck, I’m one of them and I think I’m pretty great.) They come up with creative meal ideas and then somehow manage to share these ideas and meals with the internet, like, before eating them. But top food bloggers also have food styling skills. And professional lighting and really good cameras and stuff. And you can’t exactly taste a photo on Pinterest. Food Without Filters posts feature current recipes from top food blogs tested in my real-life kitchen and photographed with a lowly iPhone and complete with substitution suggestions to make each meal even easier (and more fun.)
Cheapskate Date Nights
Do you love going out to dinner? Yeah. Me too. Are you broke? Yeah. Me too. So lately I’ve been making ‘fancy’ meals here at home rather than going out and spending a small fortune on a meal at a fancy (or even not-so-fancy) restaurant. So where does the fun part come in? Well, that’s up to you. You know…after dinner. Wink wink.