WELCOME TO COOKING 76067

Hello, and welcome to Cooking 76067, our new Blog.

We are two retired IT pros who love to cook, hence the 'Cooking' part of the blog title. Most of all, we love to experiment with recipes in the kitchen. Usually our experiments work out; sometimes not so much. When one works, we like to share it with you, and we hope you enjoy.

The '76067' part may not be obvious. It's our zip code. We live in the small Texas town of Mineral Wells, home of Crazy Water and the somewhat famous Baker Hotel and Spa. More on those later.

Back to cooking. We are not chefs, have never trained as chefs, nor have we ever worked in a commercial kitchen. We are just long-time home cooks who love cooking. We believe that cooking should be fun.

When we start with a recipe, the first time we make it we follow the directions. The next time, we modify it based on our conversations and notes. Occasionally, as with our signature Chipotle Sauce, we find a taste in a restaurant and try to replicate it at home. And sometimes we just start with a wild idea like our Chipotle Alfredo and invent from scratch. 

Always, as we develop a recipe, we take notes that become the recipes you see here, so we can make it again and share it. 

Most of the time, we cook from scratch. Sometimes a bottle or can of something is involved to make things a little easier or because we haven't found any other way to get the desired flavor. For example, our Chipotle Sauce uses canned Chipotles in Adobo sauce. (We've just made our first batch of Chipotles in Adobo from a recipe at Chili Pepper Madness. We have notes.) 

This doesn't mean you have to do everything from scratch. If we make something from scratch and you have something you like from the store, by all means, use it. We will recommend off-the-shelf ingredients where scratch may be more trouble than it's worth (like making mayo). 

Cooking should be fun, not work. 

On that note, if we use an ingredient that you don't like, use something you do like, or skip it. For example, I am very fussy about beans -- can't stand most of them, but love pintos. So when a recipe calls for dried beans, any kind of dried beans, I substitute pintos. Does this change the flavor of the dish? Probably, in some instances. But for me, it's a change for the better. My fellow cook doesn't care for cilantro so we always leave it out; and never miss it. 

Unless you're starving, there's no reason to eat food you don't like.

Of course you need to watch out for food allergies. For example, we use a lot of peanut oil for frying. If you have a peanut allergy, DO use something else with a high smoke point like canola oil or your favorite frying oil. 

Enough ground rules. On to the fun stuff -- our recipes. The  inaugural post is our signature Chipotle Sauce.