It's All About the Food

I love food. I love cooking and baking and grocery stores and cookbooks and produce outlets and restaurants and, well, you get the idea.

I was not always this way. I grew up in a "clean plate" house where my sisters and I would sit at the dining room table until our food was gone, or until bedtime, whichever came first. After a while, you just don't really like food anymore - it becomes a chore, not an experience. When I first moved out, I ate simply out of habit. I rarely prepared meals that required more than a microwave and I was terrified of spices. (To this day, I still make my chili with a taco seasoning packet.) To be honest, the thought of spending hours thumbing through cookbooks, comparison shopping for the required ingredients, and then actually cooking a meal that will be eaten and gone in 20 minutes just seemed ridiculous to me.

But then I became a mom. There's something about having kids that forces you to slow down and really learn to pay attention, to live a little, to try new things. Food suddenly became this whole new world for me to conquer and share with my growing family. I love writing weekly menu plans, watching Food Network, reading cookbooks and food magazines, trying new things, and I have not one, but two spice racks! I like to share my own recipes, thoughts about new foods and restaurants, and find the best food around without going broke.

But that's enough chit-chat... Bring on the food!