Getting Started

We've had holidays go by without a single picture of family members (including a new baby), but the latest meal is imported to iPhoto almost immediately. For more than two years, meals made at home and enjoyed at restaurants have been well documented. Yet, nothing happens with these photos, despite my husband's claims that they would make their way into a food blog. After threatening to delete them if he didn't follow through on this, I decided to just do it myself.

I don't enjoy cooking. I'm horrible at keeping track of the different components to properly time side dishes with the main course. I can do one pot meals, but I'm somewhat afraid of touching uncooked meat. I peeled and deveined shrimp for the first time the other day - requiring gloves and a disdainful look on my face the whole time. I don't actually eat red meat or pork and try to eat vegetarian as much as possible (often succumbing to the temptation of ground turkey). I also have frequent heartburn and a number of food allergies.

My husband not only puts up with these limitations, but uses them to spark his creativity. He will occasionally make steak or a pork product just for himself. For the most part, though, he tries to use ingredients that we'll both enjoy.

I accuse him of always making pasta, but this is completely false and, even though he does make a lot of pasta, he finds ways to make every pasta dish a little different. He gets excited for new issues of Bon Appetit or Food and Wine, recently discovered the wonder of a good farmers' market and challenges himself to learn new skills. I love him, his food and the fact that his desire to cook means that I don't have to survive on veggie burgers, Lean Pockets and cereal for dinner.

Meanwhile, his enthusiasm encourages me to be a good closer. The only thing I like to do in the kitchen is bake. The precision of measuring and the sweetness of the final product are perfect for me. I think because I grew up with grandmothers who only made cookies, pies, etc. from scratch, I feel like I'm cheating if I use a mix to make anything. So, after a few years of only occasionally contributing cookies or cakes to dinner parties or family gatherings, I started to look to my husband's magazines and allrecipes to help me be a better and more adventurous baker.

Now, my husband I are a good food team. We both express amazement at the others' abilities in our respective culinary hobbies. We hosted a multi-course dinner party last night that led me to finally start his blog. It will essentially be his blog, or at least his work that fills this blog. With last night as an example, his three courses to my one means that he will always outnumber me in contributions. Plus, for the most part, his creations are really his own. I will offer attribution wherever appropriate or remembered, but this will largely apply to my recipes. He likes to annoy me by not using recipes, but he's good at improvising. I will tweak, but I don't invent (at least not yet).

I hope you find the combination of our dishes intriguing. At the very least, we can recommend some good restaurants. Trips are usually planned around restaurants. Even when we don't have pictures, my husband will remember exactly what we had on a given trip. There are usually pictures though.