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Comfortably Domestic

Real Food. Real Life.

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Meet Kirsten

Comfortably What?!

I’m a far-from-perfect Domestic non-Diva who has spent a lot of time stumbling through domesticity before truly becoming comfortable enough to embrace it all.  Married to my own personal Bacon Slayer, (or BS for short,) together we are raising our 4 incredible boys while living our dream on the 45th parallel. We live Up North, but not so far north that there is permafrost. There is however, permafudge: a category in which we unequivocally reside. Our region if chock-full of the kind of homegrown goodness that will make even a modest cook’s heart sing.  And let’s be honest–many of the best things in life involve food.

♥ I wasn’t always Comfortably Domestic. ♥

In my former life, I was the queen of all things computer related. OK, that might be a bit of an embellishment, but I was a computer professional until the birth of our eldest son. Then a bright light shone from above, the angels sang and I knew that my true calling was to become a Housewife.  That’s the flowery-cliff’s-notes version. The down & dirty story will undoubtedly come out another time.

The truth?  I left a job in Corporate America, for which I was highly trained and competent; and I embarked on a new career for which I had absolutely no training, no experience, nor any expertise.  There was no instruction manual for my new career as a housewife, but I was determined to be the best wife and mother that I could be. After all, that was my job.

I immersed myself in domestic life, and quickly found that it wasn’t nearly as easy or natural as I had originally anticipated. In fact, often my early attempts at domesticity were downright abysmal: turns out that without any disposable income, I couldn’t continue to buy new clothes instead of doing laundry; babies were a lot of work; and sleep deprivation was a legitimate form of torture.  Perhaps the most startling revelation was that I couldn’t cook anywhere near as well as I thought I could.
I was under the strange delusion that since I’d spent a good deal of time in the kitchen with generations of women, somehow I knew how to cook as well as they did.  No one in my immediate family cooked from recipes or cookbooks. They seemingly threw ingredients together and the food was delicious. They just knew what went where and why.
I, on the other hand, did not possess this seemingly innate culinary knowledge. So after many, many kitchen failures, I broke down and cracked open a cookbook. I learned to cook from published recipes, and devoured vintage cookbooks for their historical food knowledge and methods.  Cookbooks became my new techie manuals. Being a new mother allowed me to further my culinary studies by watching copious amounts of Good Eats late at night on Food Network, with a nursing baby in my arms.
Alton Brown became the proverbial light bulb over my head.  Food was technical, scientific, and predictable.   It was only after I learned a few basic rules of food science that I was finally able to trust my instincts and truly learn how to cook.  I discovered that armed with a little knowledge, cooking from scratch was really not all that difficult.

♥ Real, Approachable, Comfort Food ♥

Unless otherwise noted, the recipes and photos featured here on the blog are my own, and as such, are subject to copyright laws.  I cook real food from scratch, in real portions that fit my lifestyle. We have severe food allergies to peanuts, tree nuts, and shellfish, so all of my recipes are free of those allergens.
My food isn’t always pretty, but it is very approachable and delicious. I believe that anyone can be a great home cook. My hope is that the recipes shared here will inspire and encourage you to try.  I am constantly developing new recipes and learning new cooking methods; so if there is a topic that I have yet to cover, feel free to send me an email, and I might just do the leg work for you.

♥ Other Domestic Pursuits ♥

Although food is my passion, I also enjoy many domestic pursuits such as reading, knitting, hiking, and running.  I’m a Thrift-Store-Raven–always in pursuit of shiny things, rhinestones, or other vintage treasures. I love the idea of being able to sew, but I rarely venture far from rectangles. I dream of having some land, a big red barn, a flock of egg-laying chickens, and maybe a few alpacas. I’d have a commercial kitchen and sell pies to tourists by the side of the road. The Bacon Slayer is right there with me in sharing those dreams.

Except for the chickens and alpacas part. In his world, our (as of right now non-existent) big red barn houses an ice arena in the winter, and basketball court the rest of the year. But I’m working on him.

♥ Celebrating Life on the 45th Parallel ♥

We are an active, outdoorsy family, trying our best to embrace life & the little things in our little corner of this big, beautiful world.  You will undoubtedly hear about some of the antics that come with being the lone female living in a household with my Bacon Slayer husband, and Sons #1 #2, #3, and #4–a.k.a. The Baby.

My life is encompassed by sports equipment, toy cars, and more Lego building pieces than I ever thought existed. The boys tribble-like laundry is the bane of my existence. Fart jokes are part of my daily reality. I cope with all the testosterone by drinking more chai lattes than any one person has a right to, and by seeking out pink, sparkly objects–because life is all about balance.

♥ Thanks so much for stopping by! ♥

I’m so glad that you came by for a visit. You are welcome around here, anytime!  If ever you decide that you like to chat further, you can reach me via…

Email: ComfortablyDomestic AT gmail DOT com

Twitter: @ComfortDomestic

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ComfortablyDomestic

♥♥♥

Want to know more about me?

Gosh! I’m so flattered! You can read about how we came to live here on the glorious 45th parallel, or a little on our familial weirdness–there’s a lot of that to go around.