I guess sharing food via Instagram is sort of my thing now! ...and I love it. So welcome to my little corner of the internet. I'll share recipes and cooking notes and such.
I learned to cook while kneeling on a stool, leaning onto the counter opposite my mom, in the orange and brown kitchen of my 80s childhood. She'd let me mix or crumble things, and later peel or chop them, while we chatted and I asked questions about whatever we were cooking. From this I learned how (and why) to cook without timers, to eyeball a teaspoon of salt, and why you should pack your brown sugar but not your powdered sugar. She'd learned from her mother pretty much the same way. And so on back a few generations. Mom used to joke that she hooked my dad with a blueberry pie; grandma said she hooked grandpa with a cherry pie, and I think I hooked my husband with a chocolate babka. That probably tells you a whole lot about us and our cooking philosophies.
Mom was well known for her cooking, particularly her baking, and from her I learned how incredibly meaningful it is to share food. You share time and effort and love, and you can bond over shared memories, too. Cooking for others is truly one of my favorite things.
And my cooking? I still use the instincts and skills I got from Mom, but I've added my own adventurous palate and obsession with learning the best/tastiest/most authentic technique(s) for nearly everything I cook. In other words: I still swear by my Betty Crocker Cookbook and Great Great Aunt Alma's Swedish Meatballs, but I love me some Cook's Illustrated and Yotam Ottolenghi and Smitten Kitchen, too.
You guys, I can't wait for you to cook stuff!
Recipe notes
Many of "my" recipes are adaptations of adaptations of things I've done on the fly or mutations of my own inability to just follow the damn directions. Ever. Seriously, I can't see a recipe without wanting to mess with it. Whenever possible, I will cite original recipes or link to the sources that inspired me. I'll also try to reference tasty variations of things where possible.
