Welcome to Kap’s Kitchen. You may be asking, why Kap? Well, Kap and Kappy are nicknames that close friends and coworkers have called me for years. Besides, with a lot of the awesome domain names already taken, Kap’s Kitchen almost rolls off the tongue.
So, what are we trying to do here. I like to think of it as a journey of discovery. Or, perhaps helping demystify recipes by explaining, from an amateur perspective, what works and what doesn’t work. And… I think the real purpose of this site is really to toot my horn and show off some of my cooking projects. Anyway, I hope that you enjoy reading about my efforts.
I’ll be aided by a couple of people. My sister AnnieAtFSU is a fairly accomplished amateur cook, who likes dips and casseroles. She will be a regular contributor here, on the Blog. My other partner in crime is Lady Di. Di is my assistant in the kitchen and is learning about the joys of fresh baked goods, among other things.
Let me provide a little background about myself. My heritage is Irish, Scottish, and Slovak. Yes, I know, it’s an odd mix. My mother was the Irish/Scottish part, and she was the real cook growing up. She had a real knack for cooking. When she baked, it was by feel (a hand full of this, a smidgen of that), which makes it hard to recreate some of her recipes. Anyway, I helped in the kitchen from time to time, and got a pretty good feel for cooking from watching her. Despite her heritage, it’s interesting that she learned to cook a lot of the Slovak recipes. As such, I grew up eating kolache, bobalki, halupki, and other Eastern European ethnic foods. Needless to say, a lot of my cooking influence comes from my mother and my Slovak heritage.
That aside, the real purpose of this Blog is to share my cooking projects, which I hope many of you will try to attempt. For each of my projects, I will try to provide details that you wouldn’t get in a recipe. I think a lot of people don’t try cooking or baking because of time and because there’s a lack of understanding of the recipe. I’ll be honest, I have cooked recipes where I didn’t understand certain steps. The thing is, I’m not afraid to try and fail. I hope to let you know what works and what doesn’t. Who knows, I may even provide some useful tips.
One thing that I have found in the 25 years that I have been cooking is people appreciate home cooking, especially baked goods. No matter how good or how bad I think one of my creations is, people are always amazed that I made it and that it tastes so good. Despite how much people enjoy the home made, it is very seldom that I have found people that are willing to take on a challenging recipe, or even a simple one. In a way, over the years, I have been feeling that cooking and baking are almost becoming a lost art. It’s a shame that more people don’t do it, and at times I feel that I am on an island by myself.
If you’ve made it this far through the introduction, thank you for enduring my ramblings. For the last year and a half, I have been trying to cook a new recipe (mostly baking) each week. I tend to take a few pictures along the way, and almost always a picture of the final product. I tend to post pictures on social media, but that fails to capture the magic that went into the making. On that note, I hope to have a Blog Post most weeks capturing the art of creating something in the kitchen.
Cheers,
-Kappy
Kap's Kitchen 