About

I am a married, working professional, with two small boys (2.5 & 9 months as of 5/29/11), a few critters and a garden. I cook everyday, with a toddler in the house I often feel like a short order cook and it breaks my heart that every time I try to cook an alternative to those soy corn dogs or fish sticks he says “noooooooooooo”, but I keep trying.

Let’s face it, cooking is a somewhat necessary evil, if you want to eat, you need to cook (more or less). I was fortunate to grow up in a home where we had a garden, chickens and rabbits (yes, for meat). My mom canned, baked cookies, cakes and bread from scratch and served healthy, tasty meals. She even let me into the kitchen at an early age.

I distinctly remember one of the first meals I served for my best friend (al freso on the lawn); it was a hot dog, split open stuffed with cheese and wrapped in a Pillsbury crescent roll – it was delicious. At 10, my brother and I wanted waffles, so I followed the recipe and they turned out perfect.

My step mom introduced me to super gourmet food and my culinary tastes soared to the next level. Of course, my brother and I were a bit picky, so in her wisdom (OK frustration), she had my brother and I plan a meal each on the weekends – what a brilliant idea. This forced us to plan and cook meals, with help from the master (and now both my brother and I are the primary cooks in our homes). So I have been cooking more or less for 35 years and daily for the last 20 or so.

My friends always marvel about my cooking and a few ask for the recipes, which is what inspired this blog. It is also a chance for me to collect some of my favorite recipes in one place for easy access. The truth is cooking is not hard, you need to start with a good recipe and great ingredients. As you gain experience you can start experimenting more and more, along the way you may make some mistakes – sometimes you can fix them, sometimes you can’t. If it is a total mess, there is always the take out menu drawer or the freezer.

Most of the recipes here are healthy and somewhat low fat (after my second son, I joined Weight Watchers to help get the weight off). If you are not concerned about your weight or trying to get whole grains into your diet, you can simply use a bit more oil, regular flour, etc. Most of my recipes are fairly simple, and don’t take a lot of time to prepare, though I am not sure of the exact amount of time they require since I am usually interrupted about 100 times during the prep process. A couple tips – prep your ingredients ahead of time, clean as you go, and enlist the others who enjoy your meal to help with the clean up. I hope you have fun with my recipes and enjoy every bite.

Advertisement