About Me

The Two Butt Kitchen
The Two Butt Kitchen

Lets talk about the two sides of me.   I am a Gemini just so you know.  The first side of me is the cooking and entertaining part.  This is a major part of my life and I wouldn’t be fulfilled without it. Of course, we all have to eat, but the main part of cooking for me is entertaining and sharing fun and flavorful foods with great friends. Dinner parties, happy hours and well, most anything to do with food is where I begin to enjoy.

There are many foodies out there and cookbook junkies, too. Maybe I would fall at the top of the list of nuts when it comes to foodies and recipe book hoarders. I don’t think there’s any real help for cooking junkies, so, here I am now writing a BLOG partly about cooking, recipes and my other passions.

Several of my friends are also deep into the heart of cooking and recipe collection. We exchange recipes and ideas often. My library is crowded with a massive amount of cookbooks from many of my favorite chefs; Julia Child and Martha Stewart, along with several Professional Chef style books. Need a recipe for a special occasion? It’s probably there.

Grilling most anything is a must for me, especially steaks, chicken, lamb and seafood.  It’s  a favorite way for cooking. Originally I had an electric grill because for some reason using gas frightened me. I’m a chicken! Maybe it was because in my early years we had to light the pilot light and I was always afraid it would blow up in my face. Several years later my talented hubby was badgered into converting my electric cook top over to gas. He took on the task and ran a gas line to the kitchen and installed a gas cook top. Hooray! There’s been no going back.

One of my earliest challenges in life when learning how to cook was when my mother was teaching me how to make fried chicken. I accidentally rolled the chicken in powdered sugar instead of flour. Go figure…. I was 15 or 16 at the time and they both looked alike at that stage of my life. This lesson taught me to experiment with cooking and not to get too upset when something doesn’t turn out great the first time. Usually a little adaptation will make it work. The fried chicken was placed on a baking pan in the oven, spiced up with something that mom came up with and we had a “Sweet and Sour Baked Chicken” for dinner. This learning experience quickly followed by several much better successes that launched me toward my love for cooking and entertaining.

My little sis, Pam, also could not eat Macaroni and Cheese for many years after trying my first experience in attempting to make it. This was probably about the same time as making my first fried chicken. I didn’t follow a recipe for either. I just boiled up the  macaroni, added a good size clump of cheese and figured it would all mix together some how. I can’t even remember if I shredded the cheese first or just tossed in a chunk of cheese along with some milk or cream.  Anyway, it was a bunch of macaroni with one big glob of cheese in the middle.  It’s a good thing we can laugh at our first attempts of cooking.

Capturing a Shot
Capturing a Shot

My other side, the artsy side is a craving for art, painting and photography.  Maybe this is my Gemini left side of the brain??  Since starting to write a Blog I’ve picked back up what my hubby calls my big ass camera and started carting it around again.  He’s always afraid I will ask him to carry it.  Of course, compared to mine there are many more big ass’d gigantic cameras out there for him to carry for me.  I just need to pick one and buy it.

I enjoy spending hours glancing at the TV sitcoms, but all the while I’m really reworking an image with Photoshop, browsing on my computer with the help of Adobe Bridge going through thousands of digital pictures that I’ve taken over the years.  I hadn’t used Photoshop for so long that I’d become rusty.  I’m freshening my skills with Photoshop and spending hours going through all those pictures I’ve captured from my various travels.  Thanks to all our fellow bloggers I’m reminded of all the crazy things you can do with a picture to either make it great, make it bizarre or just take care of a few little dust fleck here and there.

I’ve taken several classes in Photoshop and learned some tricks.  Probably just enough to get me in trouble where I over do the changes.   My trick is to save often, save copies, keep my original, use the undo when necessary and work with layers.  When time allows I would like to take a few more photography classes to learn more on how to actually use the manual settings of the camera just like when I was working with film.  Many years ago when working with film it seemed that there was I used the process of adjusting aperture, focusing, etc that just came with a natural touch and feel.  I’ve lost that touch with the ease of digital and am ready to pick it back up again.   The auto features of digital can make us lazy.

Just as with cooking, my library is filled with rows of dusty books, magazines and DVD’s about the art of photography, painting and Photoshop.  I keep thinking that when I retire (?#&*!!!) that I will have time to read them all and become a superb photographer.  Wishful thinking.

 

21 thoughts on “About Me”

  2. Thanks so much for stopping by and following my blog. It was great to read your “about me” especially your first cooking attempts, very funny! I too have a stack of things set by to do when I get a minute, (retirement seems a long way off!) learning Photoshop is probably one of them, once I’ve got Lightroom figured out! I look forward to more photos and cooking stories. 🙂

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  3. Thank you for following my blog. Your passion for cooking is amazing! I only really started to cook when we moved to SA…not much into it, but every now and then I get enthused to try something exciting. Maybe I will try a recipe of your’s sometime…will keep you posted!

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  5. Okay, KC, your “About Me” page pulled me in and then when I hit your last few sentences, I was hooked! My library, like yours, is filled with dusty books on Photoshop, Lightroom, photography, and learning French. I’ve taken the plunge into photoblogging to give me the impetus to tackle the things I want to learn. I’m looking forward to seeing your photos and reading about your Photoshop journey. And if I happen to pick up some great recipes along the way, all the better!

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    1. Thank you so much for the enjoyable comment. On the other side of my office on another bookcase are three shelves of cookbooks. I think I just collect books and hope I will learn by osmosis. Well, especially in the photography part. I’m really looking forward to seeing your pictures and learning more about you.

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    1. Thanks as well to you for the follow. You visited me earlier this month and I’m now just catching up. I’ve put your book “Village Teacher: Genesis” on my Amazon wish list so I don’t forget to check it out. 😀 You’ve gotten great reviews there.

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  11. I saw one of your comments on another site, and noticed you are also from Arizona so thought I’d say hi from a fellow Arizona blogger! I haven’t seen too many of us out there. I love recipes and cookbooks, too. Best wishes on your blogging journey.

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    1. Hi there. Just cooking a late dinner. Jamaican jerk pork loins and small red potatoes. Okay yes. I am a nut about cooking. It’s amazing that I’m still skinny. Looking forward to looking at your blog.

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  12. Kcinaz,s food is the best! I have the pleasure of being her neighbor and I can tell you first hand, THE FOOD IS GREAT! Good job Kcinaz! Keep the great food coming!

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  13. Thanks for checking out my blog and my Crispy Peanut Butter Truffles! I hope you find recipes on my blog that you can easily recreate for yourself as well. I look forward to following your blog in the future.

    -Christine

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    1. Thanks Miss Chris for stopping by My Adventures in Cooking page. I too am absorbed in cooking, recipes and good eating. I’m just getting started but it looks like you have been going for quite some time. Your much more healthy minded in you cooking ideas than me and it’s good to see a different perspective. I shared your site with my Vegetarian friend in Canada. She stopped by and loved it. I missed sending this reply properly as I am new to WordPress. Just learning!

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      1. Aw thank you so much!! I just started at the beginning of December, so I am still a newbie too haha! Just trying to have fun and meeting other foodies and bloggers has been really really fun! Let me know if you need any help with using WordPress!

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