In her new Real Food For Rookies E-Course, Kelly the Kitchen Kop says she'll teach you how to avoid the mistakes she's made during her real food journey. This got me thinking: so what kind of mistakes has Kelly made in the kitchen? Goodness knows I've made my share (some of which I talk about below), but it's so easy to assume all the other real food bloggers out there somehow manage to avoid the hurdles the rest of us face every day. So I got in touch with Kelly to see if she was willing to share some of her most embarrassing kitchen calamities, and lucky for us she was more than willing to 'fess up. Below you can read our exchange:
Elizabeth: I've lost count of the times I ran out and bought the latest fad "health" food only to turn around a few weeks (or months!) later and find out it wasn't healthy at all. Whole wheat pasta comes to mind. I stocked up on it with some coupons right before I discovered how completely processed and indigestible it is (plus it tastes pretty awful, too). I still have boxes of it sitting in my cupboard! Have you ever done anything like that?
Kelly: I'd read in many different places that Agave Nectar was a natural sweetener and that it worked great in recipes, so of course I went out and bought 4 jumbo bottles of the stuff. It did work great in recipes, but it 
wasn't long before Sally Fallon's article came out, which clarified some things about this mysterious sweetener that came onto the scene only in the 1990s. She said that it is highly processed and has an even higher amount of fructose (the most dangerous type of sugar) than you'll find in regular sugar - "High Fructose Agave Syrup" she calls it. Elizabeth: Ick. Yeah, I won't touch that stuff. And to think I was this close to buying a bunch of it myself before reading about how bad it is! But then sometimes there are foods that are okay nutritionally, but they just don't work out for us. Are there any real food items that you were excited to stock up on only to realize it wasn't a good fit for your family?
Kelly: I learned while doing some research just after my "food conversion" that Rapadura was a much better choice for a sweetener because it's so unrefined and even has some nutrients in it. It was only after plenty of botched recipes (and I scared my kids off from my food for a while) that I realized it really only works in certain things. Now I've got it down, I know which sweeteners work well in which recipes, and that's the topic for one of the classes, along with batch-baking tips to save time.
Okay, so don't let it worry you that the first two I mention here are about sweeteners! Can you guess where I began most of my Real Food recipe tweaking? These days I still make the kids cookies now and then (and they taste much better than when I first started experimenting with better ingredients, now no one knows they are healthier than "normal" cookies), but the class will cover much more, too!
Elizabeth: Your Rapadura story is so funny, because I have a bunch of Rapadura in my pantry right now and some definitely botched recipes in recent memory. Luckily my hubby likes the stuff in his oatmeal so it wasn't a complete waste. See, this is the stuff we need to know before we make the big purchases. I mean, seriously, I was way over-enthusiastic and bought my Rapadura in bulk--it was like $50! Real food mistakes can be expensive when you're fumbling around without much instruction.
Speaking of wasted money, it's easy to get caught up in buying small kitchen appliances when you start making more food at home. Have you ever bought any appliances that you regret spending money on?
Kelly: The biggest mistake I've made in that area was on my $200 Zojirushi bread machine
. Now, don't get me wrong, that's a nice bread machine, and I actually still can't part with it. It's great for making one loaf of bread. But for our family, I need to save time in the kitchen, so I got a new Bosch that can make 5 or 6 loaves at once. Elizabeth: Now, let's move on to the juicy stuff. What are the biggest catastrophes to happen in your kitchen?
Kelly: I guess I'd have to say my little kitchen fire is at the top of the list! Well, maybe it was when my sourdough bread bombed again. I've learned that cooking Real Food isn't about being perfect, and Lord knows I'm a good one to demonstrate that! I plan to be real in this course and show you where I'm still learning, too. :) Elizabeth: I'm sure a lot of readers can identify with sourdough disasters! That's never an easy one to master. Okay, what about your worst food flops?
Kelly: My sister would love it if I shared a story from way back, but it's still relevant even though it happened over 22 years and two homes ago, because I do dumb stuff like this all the time... Kent and I were just married, and we had my sister and her family over for dinner. I'd read about this delicious glaze you could baste a nice big ham with as it baked, and it was looking and smelling really good in the oven. When Kent tried to cut into it, though, we realized that I'd put that mouth-watering glaze all over the second layer of plastic wrap around the ham! Nice, Kel. I believe it was right around the same time when I set that oven on fire from the butter that bubbled over the top of my cinnamon rolls. The fire department came out for that one. Gee, apparently I could go on all day with these stories!
Thanks for asking all these great questions, Elizabeth...I think. :)
Elizabeth: Well, thank you, Kelly for being willing to share these oh-so-human moments with us. Frankly, I'd always rather learn from someone who knows what it's like to make mistakes and is willing to admit it! Then you know you're actually getting pointers that will work in the real world instead of just what sounds nice on paper. And I'm sure my readers would agree!
Have a Question About the Real Food for Rookies Class?
Some of the most common questions about the class include:
Can I take the class at any time?
What if I'm a terrible cook?
What if we have food allergies?
Save$45$65 on Enrollment for Real Food for Rookies!
Enrollment for Real Food for Rookies ends on May 6th. Right now the entire class is available for $145, but the price will increase to $190 on May 7th.
SPECIAL COUPON OFFER: If you sign up through May 1st you can get the class for $125 with coupon code REALFOOD. If you are interested in this class, sign up now and take advantage of this deal.
To learn more about Kelly's new e-course, you can click here or watch the video below:
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