All About Melanie

I love food, a lot. I also love to cook, A LOT! One day, my mom came up with a great idea for me to start blogging about my food and cooking adventures. I am here to share tips, tricks, recipes and all the fails that come in between. I am a self-taught home chef who loves cooking and good food.

I am going to start off with sharing a little about myself and where I got my love of food. I have never had any professional training, all that I have learned has come from my own cooking experiences, watching cooking shows, reading recipes and (of course) my very talented mother. When I was a kid, my mom and I would watch cooking shows on Saturday mornings while my brothers watched cartoons like normal children. As a child, my mom always kept us kids involved in meal preparation and she is proud of the fact that we all can handle ourselves in the kitchen. But I am the one who truly loves to cook and I share that passion with her. I also have always loved baking, something my mom isn't as passionate about. The only "training" I have had outside my home is the cooking class I took in high school. It was such a fun class and I still use some of the recipes I learned from Ms. B. And she still uses some recipes I gave to her. I actually have a spatula that she gave me as a graduation present, I was her star student! (NERD ALERT!) 

Moving away from home is surprisingly when I really got interested in cooking and is when I cultivated a lot of my skill and knowledge. I was responsible for feeding myself and I had a lot of fun building my repertoire of recipies. It was also very eye opening when I got married because now I had another person's tastes to take into consideration. Luckily my hubby Darin, is the world's LEAST picky person! There is only one food he hates and that is cucumbers. He will pick them out of everything and he even hates the smell of them (but he loves Greek food, so don't tell him that tzatziki sauce is made with cucumbers). Other than that, he will eat just about ANYTHING that I put in front of him. 

So here I am, starting this blog to share my love of food with the world! I thought it would be fun to share some little tidbits and fun facts:

-Favorite Vegetables: Asparagus and Zucchini

-Favorite Fruits: Pineapple and Strawberries (I also love anything with lemon)

-Favorite Baked Treat: Chocolate Chip Cookies and Lemon Bars

-Favorite Treat: Ice Cream!!

-Other Favorite Food: Cheese, cheese and more cheese

-Favorite Snack: Popcorn, but NEVER kettle corn. That stuff is nasty crap!

-Favorite Pizza Toppings: Pepperoni, Olives, Mushrooms and Artichoke Hearts

-Favorite Dinner Recipe I Make: Shepherd's Pie or Stuffed Peppers (Both are super yummy!)

-Foods I Hate: Sour Cream and Mustard (But I do use them mixed into things like baked goods and marinades, respectively)
-Favorite Kitchen Tools: My immersion blender, microplane grater and stainless steel Cuisinart cookware
-Kitchen Tool Wants: Lots of baking items, too many to list!
-A Kitchen Wish: Someone to wash all my dishes, I HATE doing dishes.

Well I hope you have enjoyed this little synopsis. If you haven't caught on, I LOVE creating yummy food. I am excited to share my recipes, tips and of course all the epic fails. Let me know if you have any questions or requests, I would be happy to cover any specific topics you have.

With love <3

Melanie