About Me

Welcome to Karen's Kitchen Stories

Hi, I'm Karen, author of Karen's Kitchen Stories. This blog is a chronicle of recipes I have successfully attempted (and sometimes unsuccessfully). I love trying "stretch" recipes that are a bit of a challenge. My recipes aren't necessarily simple. They may even have lots of ingredients.

I am into exploring cooking, and am really into learning new techniques. My posts and recipes are meant to teach you (as I teach myself) that you can make some pretty fabulous food. Trust me, if I can do it, you can too.

I also am a total bread geek. I have immersed myself into learning how to bake bread, including sourdoughs, and someday would love to take a serious bread baking course. In the meantime, if you don't understand some of the terms I am using, feel free to shoot me an email or comment on one of my posts, and I'll try to help.









How did I get into bread baking?



I've never been a baker. In fact, cooking has never been an interest until recently. My family members were never into cooking either. The only time I ever made a big effort was when company was coming.


However, about ten years ago, I discovered the King Arthur Flour website, and ordered their sourdough starter. Believe it or not, after never having baked bread before in my life, I decide to start with sourdough. Thank goodness it worked out!





My favorite kind of bread..



I prefer lean bread with a levain, but I also love laminated breads, such as croissants. Oh, and I love, love, love pizza.


My favorite bread toys....



I can't live without a kitchen scale. I also love my instant read thermometer, pizza stone, and dough rising buckets. I also love baking loaves in a Dutch oven.


My favorite bread books...




My bread book habit is a little out of control.






My biggest bread challenge...



Baguettes. Getting those big holes in the crumb while not pancaking the dough is always a challenge for me.


My guilty pleasure...



I love car chases. Living in SoCal, there is always a nightly car chase on television .. =)


About the food and the recipes:



The recipes in this blog are adapted from my overly large cookbook collection, magazines, other blogs, family recipes, and some recipes that are my own creation. I always give credit to the original source if I can find it, I always use my own photos, and I always write the instructions in my own words. My ingredients list and instructions include what I did and may have some changes from the original source. How can you tell how much I have changed a recipe? Look for the following words:

Slightly adapted from = I made very few changes.
Adapted from = I made some changes, sometimes with the ingredient list, and sometimes with the technique. I also may have converted volume measurements to weight.
Inspired by = I have made a lot of changes but I still want to give credit to the original author for the inspiration.
If you are a blogger and are inspired to make one of the recipes from this blog, be sure to use your own photos and your own words and link back to my post. I'd be honored if one of my posts inspired you!
About the photos:







I take all of the photos on this blog. I still need to learn a lot more about my camera as well as post processing. It's on my long list of things to do.


If you'd like to use one of my photos, please ask for my permission. I usually say "yes" as long as you post the photo only and provide a link back to my blog and you do not post the recipe.


I love it and am thrilled when you "pin" my photos to Pinterest as long as you do not remove the link back to my blog and you do not copy and paste the recipe into the comments section.
Contact: karen.h.kerr@gmail.com
Where else can you find me?



I'm on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram.

I'd love it if you would follow me for updates.