Home for the Holidays.. and back in the kitchen again!

So I start a new journey with a new post on a new blog. A lot of new-ness, a lot of exciting adventures ahead! Just a couple weeks ago I came across Taste Spotting through Stumble Upon and I've been frequently refreshing and bookmarking new recipes several times a day ever since! It also got me thinking, after seeing so many blogs, that it'd be fun to try one out myself. I've done some blogging before to document and update information for several group trips I've been on, so I'm not too new to this realm of things. I have not, however, kept a blog for myself, especially with food. Being a girl raised to cook (considering my mom's side is Polish/Italian.. cooking is pretty much in my blood), I love the idea of being able to post and see different recipes and have reaped in so many cooking ideas just from the countless hours of blog scanning. So thus sparked the idea in my mind of blogging!

I figured I should probably introduce myself so you can better understand the person behind the posts. I am Alyse, and I'm a cooking addict. My love for cooking has been put temporarily on hold with the lack of proper facilities in my living arrangement at my college. In addition to cooking, I am a "coffee artist", aka Barista, at Starbucks. When I'm not dishing out lattes, I'm either a.) spending time with my fiance, Joe b.) doing homework or c.) both a and b. Speaking of my fiance, we're going to be getting married May 8th! Not only will I be marrying the love of my life, but it will be the start of finally regaining a facility to be able to cook for my new hubby! Now that we've become acquainted, onto what's been going on in recent news...

So, these days, back home means back in the kitchen. I never knew how much I took the oven and stove in my house for granted until I was plopped in the middle of Valley Forge, PA in a dorm without any of the above available to use. Now as a girl who was born with a mixing whisk in her hand, raised as a 3 year-old with lessons on how to mix dough to the perfect pie crust consistency, and relient to bake whenever her little heart desired, this was a huge lifestyle shock for me. The whole semester, I've been dreaming of Thanksgiving break, and even Christmas, with visions of a steaming hot box capable of producing a pile of liquid into a beautiful cake dancing above my head. Heck, I even started planning out every single cookie and dish I would bake for my friends for Christmas back at the end of August!

Anyway, today was my first day of Thanksgiving break, and what better way to spend it then baking? Yes, I woke up at the wee hours of 8 AM on my first day of vacation just to spend every glorious second I could bonding with my oven. It seems like I got out all my baking angst built up over the past 4 months in the short 5 hours I spent in the kitchen today. There is a light at the end of the tunnel though! The middle of May I will be moving into an apartment with my fiance (well, by that time he'll be my husband) with a fully workable stove and oven! Not only will I be able to bake and cook to my hearts content, but I'll also be able to escape the food served in my college's cafeteria. But back to todays bake-fest...

Today I got to make 3 Impossible Pumpkin Pies (using my late grandmother's recipe), 2 pumpkin breads (with the leftover pumpkin), 2 apple pies, and a Chocolate Pudding Pie, as well as make some Taco Soup to get rid of some of the leftovers in the fridge in preparation for the cornucopia of food that will be taking over the refrigerator as of tomorrow.

We still have 2, count them, 2 cans of pumpkin left over, so I'm having a fun time scheming up what to make with it before I return back to school. I have to jet and start getting ready for the night ahead. Tonight is my church's annual Thanksgiving Eve service, and after I'm going to spend some time with my fiance, his family, and some Chocolate Pudding Pie. What could be more of an incredible way to kick off the holidays than that?