My parents were both quite handy in the kitchen and I learned a lot from them…

and now my mother-in-law’s red beans and rice recipe is probably my absolute favorite dinner. But sometimes I do get burnt out of our regulars meals, especially during the summer when our go-to quick dinner is chicken and broccoli. For inspiration I have a few resources I use.

• Kitchen Shower. If you are engaged I recommend having a kitchen specific shower. Not only were all the gifts for the kitchen but the guests were all asked to bring a recipe, a few even brought tools needed and ingredients for that recipe! When I am looking for something new this is where I start.
• Pinterest. It feels like most people at least have heard of Pinterest by now… So I don’t feel the need to explain how I use it.
• Cookbooks. Pinterest is great but a lot of the recipes are just remakes of each other and/or have a lot cream-of-such and such soups in them. One cookbook written by a lady at my church and ones from Williams-Sonoma like this one are my favorite.
• These Websites

1. 100 Days of Real Food – We don’t follow any certain diet or meal plan but I like this lady’s recipes. Texans can’t just eat salads for every meal and he approves of many of recipes from this site.
2. Sally’s Baking Addiction – For baking this is my go-to. If you want your friends to love you forever start with these cookies. She also has some great healthy options if you want to venture to that section. The only downside is several of her recipes are not very forgiving (baking rarely is anyway) espcially if you are new to baking from scratch BUT she gives she gives great details to help you out. My advice is even if you are someone who makes recipes your own (I’m guilty of that) the first time you make something from her site, follow it exactly then if you have any tweeks do them the second time around.
3. Southern Living – I use Southern Living mostly just for holidays but I love that they have pretty much any staple you could want. I recently used their buttermilk biscuit recipe and loved it.

• If none of those came through. Just type what you are looking into Google, the top finds are the most clicked/downloaded/shared and are usually good starting points. This is typically my last resort but it comes through when I need it.