Kate Payne’s “Hip Girl’s Guide to the Kitchen” is Out

By Tiffany Young

Despite the fact that I’m not entirely a do-it-yourselfer, I still love reading about other people who garden, live on farms and enjoy making their own “stuff,” for lack of a better word.

I mean, I bake. I cook. I make DIY body scrubs … that sort of thing. But growing veggies and raising chickens I leave to the experts. It’s not that I’m not interested, I just know my lack of follow through at this point.

One of the blogs I follow such as this is the Hip Girl’s Guide to Homemaking. Kaye Payne just came out with her own book, “Hip Girl’s Guide to the Kitchen,” which I aim to get just as soon as I buy a house or condo, which, hopefully, is real soon. The Spooners had the opportunity to go to a cookbook event last week at Springdale Farm, in which Payne explained how to ferment veggies. I’m not sure the Spooners are at that point where we’re planning on fermenting (not to mention I’m not a huge fan of vinegar), but the cocktail bitters were definitely intriguing. Perhaps we’ll stick to drinks!

If you get the chance, Kate has several events coming up before she goes on tour here in Austin, so check out her new book.

Also, if you get the chance to go to Springdale Farm, you should totally go! It is serene and the ducks following each other, (No wonder there’s the saying, “Get your ducks in a row.”) are adorable.