In the beginning

I've always loved food, with the exception of the vegetable casseroles forced upon me as a child. But since I started cooking more in the last few years, I adore it. The smell of onions and garlic sautéing in oil in the pan makes my heart sing. With all pictures of food clogging up my camera and computer it felt like it was time to share them. Does the internet need another blog about food? Probably not, but here it is anyway.

For Christmas I received a lot of baking supplies: a Silpat baking sheet; a loaf pan; a fluted cake pan; Betty Crocker's Cooky Book; America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book; and not one, but four springform pans, from 7" up to 10". And then, my husband John and I saved our pennies (really, the pennies from his mom and my dad for our Christmas/wedding presents) and bought ourselves what we've been coveting for ages -- a stand mixer. We originally wanted to go with the KitchenAid because of all the cute colors, but after reading reviews on Amazon we instead opted to splurge on the Cuisinart, which has a better warranty, bigger bowl, and higher horsepower. We haven't named it yet, but I think she's a strong-willed female.

I took her out for a test run with some "Old Fashioned Sour Cream Cookies" from Betty Crocker and grouched about the amount of flour that was left on the bottom of the bowl. Soon after that John, smart man that he is, suggested I try the paddle instead of the whisk. That made things a whole lot easier. In my defense, she didn't come with a manual, but a DVD, and who wants to sit down and watch a DVD when you could be creaming butter and sugar and then mixing in the dry ingredients? The cookies were tasty and reminded me of the tea cakes that my grandmother made when I was a kid, but I forgot to take any pictures before we finally finished them off last night.

Despite the title, this blog will cover more than just cookies. Or cakes, or cheesecakes. Expect to see Thai curries and stirfrys, soups since it's winter and they warm the stomach and soul, breads and pizzas made by the husband, fledgling attempts at Mexican cuisine, and lots of tofu. Yeah, I'm a vegetarian at home, and other than the occasional hankering for a hamburger, I don't miss meat.