Say hello to Natalie from Michigan!

Food interests: Anything chocolate, breads, pastas…basically anything that looks and sounds great!

Q. What are your favorite things to cook?
This is a hard question as I like to cook or try almost anything. Probably my favorite things to cook are chicken breast with cream of chicken soup in the crock pot, pork chops with cream of mushroom soup in the crock pot, homemade pizza (crust and sauce are homemade), homemade chocolate cake and frosting and lasagna. Since I am not a big fan of leftovers, when I make a meal I usually have leftovers that others get to enjoy (my mom and grandma seem to reap the leftover rewards!).

Q. How/when did you learn to cook?
I started cooking when I was a young girl at my parents home. We were definitely a ‘meat and potato’ kind of family. I still have recipes in my head that I use to this day!

Q. Tell us about some of your cooking triumphs.
I am going to have to say that last year was my first year of canning and it was a big success for me! I canned bread & butter pickles (everyone that has tried them has loved them), tomatoes, raspberry jam, strawberry jam, and kosher pickles. It’s like an addiction once you start!

Q. What was your most memorable cooking tragedy?
Recently, I wanted to make some homemade cupcakes for my co-workers and the first batch didn’t rise correctly so I threw the whole batch away (24 cupcakes). I made another batch and thought I would give one a try and they didn’t taste correct, so I threw the whole batch away (another 24 cupcakes in the garbage). I then reverted to a boxed cake with some homemade cream cheese frosting….SUCCESS! Maybe, my taste buds were off…not quite sure, but my co-workers liked the strawberry cake that I brought in. After I told them this story, they said I should have brought the cupcakes in anyways…lol 🙂 Also, I am not very successful at baking cookies 🙁

Q. Describe your kitchen. Do you love it, hate it, and why?
I rent an apartment so counter space is not plentiful. I do have an island that I own so that gives me more space to prepare my meals and baked goods on and to store some goodies underneath.

I have this awesome wood/wire rack that I have in my kitchen that was given to me. In this rack, I keep most of my spices, hand mixer, extra sugar, flour, and misc. I love it 🙂

Overall, I think that my kitchen is pretty nice and big for an apartment.

If there was one thing that I would change, it would be to have a gas stove/oven instead of electric!

Q. Is your pantry organized and are your kitchen drawers tidy? We need to know.
My kitchen drawers and pantry are organized and tidy for the most part. I am lucky enough to have a nice, big pantry in my apartment! One of the shelves in the pantry is dedicated to baking goods only. 🙂

Q. Do you have any favorite family cooking traditions?
No real family cooking traditions. But over the last few years, I have taken on the tradition of making a traditional Thanksgiving Dinner.

Q. What is the one gadget (or ten) you couldn’t do without in your kitchen?
I love my bread maker machine. My mom and grandma love the cinnamon bread that I make in it for them! Oh, my hot water bath canner. I just started canning last year and I love my canner that a friend gave to me! I also love my new stainless steel cake/brownie pans that I bought at Lehmann’s.


Q. If you had to take one food to a deserted island, what would it be?
Does chocolate count????? I love chocolate and could probably live on it. I could probably even make a chocolate face mask! I could use the chocolate to cover the taste of ants, bugs, and wildlife that I really didn’t want to taste. Chocolate makes everything better…lol 🙂

Q. What is your go-to comfort food?
I am also going to have to say CHOCOLATE!! I always seem to have some on stock and when I want or need it, I go right to it…like now….I NEED CHOCOLATE…to the stash I go…lol 🙂

Some of Natalies’s favorite recipes that she’s contributed to Farm Bell Recipes include:

See all of Natalie’s recipes!

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