Say HELLO to Charley!

Q. What are your favorite things to cook?

I’m more of a baker than anything. Yeast bread has always been my favorite thing to cook, with cakes, pies, cookies, brownies, etc close behind.

Q. How/when did you learn to cook?

I learned to cook from my mom, but she was pretty good at letting me have free range in the kitchen. She told me that if you can read a recipe you can cook. I was lucky to have parents who let me explore what I liked to do and encouraged me to be good at it. There was only one rule, and that was that I had to clean up my messes!

Q. Tell us about some of your cooking triumphs.

Cooking my own Thanksgiving for the first time and it being as good (if not better!) than the ones we had at home. Finding out that making cheesecake isn’t as hard as people had led me to believe. I really liked teaching myself to make real butter croissants, it’s quite a process, but so very worth it.

Q. What was your most memorable cooking tragedy?

The Thanksgiving without mashed potatoes. I peeled and sliced the potatoes into the pot, covered them with water and set them on a burner to await their cooking turn. The burner I set them on was the vent for my oven (which was obviously on), and when I turned them on they never got done! They just stayed little rubbery hockey pucks and wouldn’t get done. I cooked them for over an hour and they never got soft.

Q. Describe your kitchen. Do you love it, hate it, and why?

I have a love/hate relationship with it right now. Right now I hate it because we are remodeling it, but I am in love with how it is going to turn out. So, I’m living with the yucky parts until it’s better than new.

Q. Is your pantry organized and are your kitchen drawers tidy? We need to know.

No and no. My pantry isn’t built yet, so my food stores all anywhere I can find a spot for them. As far as kitchen drawers go, well, until my cabinets are finished, I don’t have any!

Q. Do you have any favorite family cooking traditions?

Oh, there are so many! All of our special occasions seem to revolve around food. I think one of my favorite things though is baking and icing sugar cookies with my girls. I make up a bunch of icing and color it for them, set out sprinkles and sanding sugar and let them have at it. It’s always a fun time for the whole family.

Q. What is the one gadget (or ten) you couldn’t do without in your kitchen?

My KitchenAid, a good knife and wooden spoons.

Q. If you had to take one food to a deserted island, what would it be?

Peanut butter!

Q. What is your go-to comfort food?

Cookies. Cookies make me feel like all is good and right with the world.

Some of Charley’s recipes on Farm Bell Recipes include:
Hot Artichoke Dip with Spinach
Mile High Peanut Butter Pie
My Favorite Brownies
Easy Cheese Danish

Find all of Charley’s recipes here.

Charley blogs at Cooke’s Frontier.

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