Not Another Food Blog?!

Before starting, I researched cooking/baking blogs...over 137,000,000 and counting! I realize I am not the first person to ever have had this idea of writing about what I bake and cook. So how do I make myself different? How do I make myself standout so that people want to read what I write about? I would say that 99% of those who write about food have the same idea...to take something they love to do and put it out for others to enjoy. It really comes down to what you want to read about, and I hope that my little addition to the millions out there becomes one you will look at and follow.

We all (or at least most of us) have copies of cooking magazines and books. In my particular kitchen they might even range into the hundreds. It can be hard not to pick up the latest edition of one when the pictures look so good...you think to yourself, sure I'll make that, and then sometimes you do and sometimes you don't. What many of us know, though, is that sometimes those pictures can be deceiving...they may look amazing, but the recipe may as well be in ancient Greek. I know that in order for a recipe to make it into a book or magazine, it goes through countless tests and trials. Sometimes things come out perfect and others make you wonder just who was doing the testing. We are the true final testers because even after it has gone to print, we are the ones who actually decide if it is a keeper or compost.


Part of the cookbook shelves

What I want to do is share and discuss recipes from magazines and books that I have and you might, as well as from the plethora of recipes that are online in blogs and food sites.  I know, now you're asking yourself "what makes her think she can do better than all the people who put together the book or magazine in the first place?" I'm not saying I can do better, just offering another viewpoint.


SMALL side note about my cooking/baking...I have a very difficult time following a recipe exactly as written. I can't help it...I just look at recipes and my brain instantly starts adding, slashing and changing. I have learned, though, to always write down what I do, which means my books and magazines are full of notes and ideas. I love to cook and bake. I've worked in many a professional kitchen, bartended, and waited tables at some great and not so great resturants. I almost went all the way with culinary school, then realized I didn't want to cook for the masses and what they wanted, but for my nearest and dearest and what I wanted.


I don't believe in overly fussy cooking.  If a recipe calls for ingredients that I can't easily get or won't use again, then why use it? Cooking and baking should be accessible. We are everday people, on a budget, just like you.


So here's to something new and enjoyable, and in the words of the great Oscar Hammerstein, "Let's start at the very beginning, A very good place to start..."