An Intro to Me

Welcome to my blog!  I am really excited about this blog, I hope you get something out of it!

Warnings about my blog style:  I like the Capslock button.  I feel like it helps me convey the tone/how passionately I feel about a certain word.  If you don't like food, this blog is totally NOT for you (see what I did there?).  I'm sarcastic.  If I say something that offends you-my bad.  I like to joke, I like to give people hard times (especially myself).  <---I like parenthesis.  I like exclamation points!!!!  This is not going to be a proper English blog.  So my style may drive some up the wall.  But let's face it-we're not in high school or college anymore-get over it.  I've seen worse out there by people older than me, so I figure it can't be that bad.  At least I use capitalization, punctuation, and complete sentences.

Food.  Who doesn't love food?  It sustains our life.  It gives us energy.  It comforts us in times of sorrow, happiness, loneliness, celebrations, victories, failures.  It's basically the center point of family get togethers.  You go over to Grandma's house and she's got food on the table.  It's your birthday?  Let's go out to eat!  You just got a new job?  Let's go out to eat!  You broke up with your crappy boyfriend?  Let's go out to eat and drink some margaritas!  You get up in the morning-you eat.  I mean, seriously, who doesn't LOVE food?  I do.  I've had a love affair with food ever since I was a little girl.  I LOVE to eat.  I'm not joking.  I eat until I'm full and I'll keep eating if I don't make myself stop.  Which is exactly why I'm constantly on a "diet" or in the "God-I've-really-got-to-get-to-the-gym-or-run-8-miles" mentality.  I've never been skinny.  And I'll tell you why.  I LOVE FOOD.  I think people are crazy when they give up certain foods all in the name of being a size 2.  Seriously, life is too short to give up a piece of cake or not have that glass of wine.  If I want it, I'm gonna eat it.  Even if I have to pay for it later when my jeans start fitting too tight.

I grew up in a household where my mom basically made 6 dishes.  Fish sticks, corny dogs, individually packaged pot pies, spaghetti, hamburgers, and hamburger patties with gravy.  Not that anything is wrong with that, but let's just say my work has been cut out for me since I went off to college and started living on my own.

My first order of business as a college student was simple baking.  Cupcakes, cakes, cookies.  Nothing too complicated.  The cupcakes were out of a box, the icing out of a container, the cookies were Pillsbury.  Again, not that ANYTHING is wrong with that!  I just had no idea how to make things from scratch.  My Nanny made things from scratch and I LOVED her cooking.  I think I've always strived to be like her in that way.  So I think I first started with cookies from scratch.  I would buy the little bag of Nestle semi-sweet chocolate chips and follow the directions on the bag.  That was my first experience with success.

Then I got a simple recipe for baked Chicken parmesan from a friend and that was my first cooking success (other than spaghetti and mac and cheese).  Holla!  That was what started it all right there.  Justin Anderson (JuJu), if you read this blog, you'll now know that you were the person who started me on my cooking journey.  Thank you!  Then I started dating the man who would become my husband.  He loved my chicken parmesan, but we had to branch out from that because you NEVER want your best recipes to become a burnout.  Luckily for me, his mom his pretty awesome at cooking and my Christmas presents from her consisted of cookbooks.  She also bought me the other love of my life, my red KitchenAide mixer.  Yet another reason I started branching out.

I had to start off slowly, but I found that as long as I followed the recipe, most of my dishes were huge successes.  It started with enchiladas or casseroles.  The longer Steve and I were together the more new things I tried.  Salmon wrapped in phyllo?  Sure, why not?  Steve didn't care for it that much, but I'm a foodie and I loved it.  I started making chili's and branching out of my comfort zone.

Now, three years into marriage, I've found that cooking is my new hobby.  I could spend HOURS in the kitchen.  My favorite part of the cooking process is eating and watching the reaction of other people.  I feel extreme disappointment if someone doesn't enjoy my food.  It's almost like I take it as a personal insult or that I'm a failure in the kitchen.  I have to remind myself that not everyone is going to love what I make and heck, even I may not like it!

For example, this Christmas Eve I made a tres leches cake.  I was SO EXCITED about this cake, it was a little ridiculous.  Tres leches cake is probably one of those cakes that you either like or loathe and I happen to be one of the "likers" of it.  So I naturally thought, "Well, if I like it, then EVERYONE should like it".  I have to say when Steve immediately said he didn't care for it, my feelings were hurt.  Oh well-it's trial and error.  Next year I'll make a different cake for Christmas Eve and hopefully that will be a success.  And I'll say it right now, I thought my tres leches cake was delicious.  It tasted better than La Duni's.  I mean, seriously, a professional could have sold that cake for $30.  And it was all from scratch.  The whole thing, even the creme topping.

So now you know what this blog is going to be about.  I'll try to take as many pictures and document my cooking and update as much as possible.  My next post will most likely be the homemade chicken pot pie I'll be making this afternoon.  I'll probably also try to document my running habits.  It will help me stay accountable.  On that note, I started a Runner's Devotional this week.  I'm excited to keep up with that and journal about my successes on the pavement and in my journey of trying to get a little closer to God.  Another warning-I may talk about God in here.  Please don't be offended by that and think that I'm trying to push my belief's on to you because that couldn't be further from the truth.  I love that everyone has different beliefs and I think it's great that we can live in a place where it's tolerated and welcomed.

On the list for this week (you've already missed my meatballs and cream sauce, Hungarian Goulash, dinner rolls, and puff pastries... sorry about that.  It wasn't until I made the puff pastries last night that I decided to give this blog a "go").  I'll make all that stuff again so you guys can see.

Basically, I want people who were or are like me, who want to try new things in the kitchen, some recipes that they can be successful at.  I never would have thought 5 years ago, that I would make puff pastries or pie crusts or ANYTHING from scratch-so this is pretty exciting for me every time I try something new and it's even remotely edible :)

Thanks for reading my novel of a blog post!  Happy cooking!