Filed under: Kitchen, Your Home, House Tours
Richard Fleischman for AOL
Barefoot and baking in St. Paul, Minnesota.
It's a chilly Friday morning and Christine Hoffman is cranking out pies. Friday is "Pie Day" in the Hoffman house. The oven is on high and the kitchen is toasty warm. Christine's cherry red toes peek out from her cozy woolen leg warmers.
Now more than ever, Christine spends time in the kitchen. When outside work sources started slowing down last fall, Christine, a color-consultant, visual merchandiser, and HGTV stylist, began to look inside. In her home, especially the kitchen, she found all the inspiration she needed to begin something new. In her heart, she knew she was in the right place.
Christine started Pies & Aprons, a blog about "keeping a home and everyday joys." While Martha may have paved the way for celebrating domestic achievements, Christine is crafting her own quirky path in the home arts, as she records daily life around the house. Cooking and baking are de rigueur; her photographs alone get the salivary glands excited. Organizing, decorating, crafting and shopping are also on the menu.
Christine takes the cake as today's relevant, hip hostess, executing the role with thrift, simplicity, and gratitude. Her blog is familiar, inviting, and wholly authentic. Born and bred in the Midwest, she comes from a lineage of cooks, bakers, and candy makers. She recalls Grama Claire pulling peanut brittle and kneading dough, and the clamor around Grama Elsie's fresh cake doughnuts. Christine's father, in fact, is still keeping his famous baked bean recipe a secret.
Nurturing through nourishment creates comfort and happiness for Christine, and the lucky recipients or her work. "Baking is a great way to celebrate and make people happy," she says. When she began dating Steve, now her husband, she celebrated him with a rhubarb pie on his birthday. Some might say she baked herself into her husband's heart. To this day, Steve is her official taste tester. He is rewarded with a brand new mouthful every Friday.