The Welcome Brigade

Hello there! & Welcome! 

I have been wanting to have a blog for a while but didn't know what "genre" I wanted to be. I spent so much time trying to figure out what type of blog I am that I never started one! I figure might as well start somewhere. 

I am starting this blog to document the journey of my food obsession. Since I am already well into that journey I feel like I might have to back track a bit but hopefully not too far. Now, when I say food obsession I don't just mean eating it. I don't just mean trying new things. I don't just mean one type of cuisine. I don't just mean going to restaurants. I don't even mean testing the recipe over and over again and only publishing the perfect recipe. I mean obsession! I mean cooking it. I mean experimenting with it. I mean trying new and scary foods, individual ingredients and new and scary combinations. My food obsession is with all aspects of food. There is a chance that you will think my adventure is fairly vanilla in depth, but the blog is still young people! We have a long way to go!

I hate when people put too many strict parameters on themselves and their blog style so I am going to make this as real as possible and not pigeonhole myself into one style of cooking or one type of cuisine, or one type of blogging style! My goal here is to introduce myself (and YOU) to a variety of different types of cuisine at a variety of skill levels. I will be sharing recipes and techniques, culinary and cultural experiences, random chatty blog posts, and sample meal plans that I actually send my clients. Eventually I hope to do extremely in depth studies into particular ingredients and show the versatility of the ingredient.

I used to think that everyone knew how to cook. Everyone cooks with their parents right? Everyone has adventurous palates right? Everyone LOVES onions and garlic right? RIGHT!? Turns out that's not the case. Everyone is at different skill levels and has different taste preferences. Some people's parents cooked for them everyday and they never learned how to boil water or how toast is made and can barely pour themselves a bowl of cereal with milk. Some people's parents also didn't know how to cook and went out to eat every night. Some people don't have parents or great family lives. You can't assume someone's skill level or even their tastes by their upbringing. 

I do not have a culinary degree. I have never worked in a restaurant (YET). I don't own the fanciest knives or pans (YET). I do have quite an arsenal of cool gadgets, but none that are so expensive the general public couldn't also own them. I am just an extremely creative person and cooking has always come fairly easily to me. It is a way for me to unwind. I don't see cooking as laborious or something I HAVE to do to survive.  It is something I think is enjoyable and fun.

My late Grandma was from Georgia and my Grandfather is Mexican. We have a lot of recipes and cultural traditions that have carried into my cooking "education" if you will. If I am being honest though? The real education came from my time in the kitchen with my mom. My mom doesn't have a super ethnic background or any real cooking education either. She is an extremely strict recipe follower. She finds recipes she thinks sound good and follows them from start to finish. I am a little more loosey goosey. I interpret recipes. I look at the list of ingredients and skim the technique and decide if I want to do it that way or if I want to do it a different way. I add extra ingredients that might change the overall flavor profile of the dish and generally just dick around doing what I want. That's okay! You should do that if you feel comfortable too!

The point of this weird anecdote, is that this blog is going to take twists and turns and have absolutely no continuity bc my brain doesn’t work that way. So kick up your heals and let’s get going!