Welcome!

I've been wanting to start a food blog for a long time now. I was putting it off until I found a job, and then my camera broke, and I've been procrastinating on buying a new camera for months now. Well, my parents gave me money for a camera for my birthday. In November. And I still don't have a camera. So....

I've decided that if I can't stop myself from putting off camera-shopping, I can at least stop procrastinating starting my blog. It's minimalist for now, until I learn a bit more about layout. But at the very least, I can start posting.

My goal is to share some of the wonderful things that come out of my kitchen. When I moved out of the dorms and into my first apartment, I cooked much the way my (wonderful, but busy) mom had. I love my mom, and one of the ways she showed she loved us was putting dinner on the table every night. But she was busy building an academic career and raising me and my brother, so she didn't make anything that took more than 15 minutes. Most meals had the same template: saute a bunch of veggies, add a can of beans, or boneless skinless chicken breast, make some rice or pasta, and dinner was served.

But you see, my first apartment was in Minnesota, and I am from the West. And I had a burning desire for Mexican food: not the bland, salty, Midwestern kind; I wanted the mole from the Red Iguana . Since I couldn't find it, I decided I would just need to figure out how to make it myself.

So I figured out how and began migrating away from the simple food my mom makes. And I discovered a dirty little secret: If I cook it myself, I can make it exactly the way I like it. Restaurants have to cater to the taste buds of thousands of people: I only have to cater to me. Control freak that I am, I fell in love with the kitchen. And here, I hope to share that love.