Gastronomically speaking...

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines Gastronomy as the art and science of good eating. My love of cooking stems from my love of good food.  I believe that if you asked me what came first, the love of good food or the love of cooking, I'd have to say good food.

I was blessed with growing up in a three generation household. When I was in 5th grade, my maternal grandmother moved in with us.  Between my grandmother and my mother, I grew up watching both of them make such family favorites as pork chops, turkey with homemade gravy - no lumps, and apple pie. Oh, that apple pie! So warm and delicious...and now I'm distracted from my writing!

I spent many hours as sous chef to my mother and grandmother and happily learning how to cook at their sides. I remember the first time I helped make the gravy at Thanksgiving.  I still make my gravy the same way. So many family recipes, some that weren't even written down but made from memory. I think I was lucky to have that time to learn to cook with my grandmother and mother...and of course my dad on the grill. Since I lived with my parents until I got married in my 30's, I had a lot of sous chef practice. 

So, when I got married to Mike, the best guy in the whole world, I was excited to have someone to cook for. Of course, I had to choose a picky eater. In the past 8 years, I have managed to get him to eat things that he never would eat before.  He's been great about my experiments in the kitchen.  Most have been deliciously successful. Some, like the time I was teaching my niece, Sarah, how to make chcken Marsala, did not turn out well.  It turns out that you should NOT use sweet Marsala wine in that recipe.

Several months ago, I signed up to write a local cooking blog (http://www.examiner.com/cooking-168-in-tampa-bay/kathleen-harriott). I thought it would be fun, but it really hasn't. The rules of the website for it's writers is too restrictive.  You can't write anything in the first person.  WHAT?  How can I tell a funny cooking story if I can't write in the first person? All content has to be locally relevant.  This means I can't just write an article about a recipe unless it can be related to the local community.  Since they have restricted me to the subject of cooking only, I can't write about a local restaurant - unless it is to try to recreate a meal I have in a local restaurant. I have already written about our local farmers markets and butchers.  What else can one write about that is local and in regards to cooking? I would write about my favorite cooking tools, but I can't talk about ME and would have to say something about how that cooking tool relates to the local community.  Can you see my dilemma? Therefore, I've decided to start my own blog so that I can:

1. Write in first person
2. Write about restaurants - local or back home in NJ
3. Stop getting emails that say "While your article was well written, it did not follow the following Examiner rules - locally relavent"

So, welcome to my blog about food, the love of food, the love of cooking, and my love for feeding my husband.