I assimilated...

Yep.  I assimilated to the new era of owning a blog.  My original idea was to write a cookbook and then figure out how to publish it on a small, local kind of scale.  Yeah, whatev, that's too time consuming and I can't update it easily.  Every time I create a new dish all I have to do is log on and blog it!  So much simpler.

I've been cooking and creating my own recipes for about 10 years now.  I'm 23 now, so I started when I was 13, much to Mama's displeasure, since I was not a fan (still ain't!) of washing the dishes after an adventure in gastronomy.  I will wash up now, if she doesn't get to them before me.  That woman is a dish ninja.  DO NOT leave a glass or a fork unattended for less than 2 minutes around her.  It WILL end up in the dishpan and then the dish drain in 1:30 flat.  The last 30 seconds is the time it takes for you to reach for the item, only to find it's been ninja'd into the drainer.

She's yet to figure out how I do it though.  Walk into the kitchen with NO plan of action whatsoever, and walk out with something amazing in about an hours time.  When it comes out good enough for me to wish I'd made more, I grab my trusty Tinkerbell notebook (that's right, TINKERBELL!) and jot it all down.  However at that point, I'm also wishing I'd written down the measurements as well.  I never measure things.  Unless I have to.  I do everything "to taste" and put however much or however little I want into whatever it is.  I'm not trying to overpower anything.  I want to be able to taste the different flavors separately in certain things and in others I want them to blend together.  'Course that all depends on what you're making and how you use them.  I can't teach you how to do these things like some white-coat at the CIA (Culinary Institute of America) or JAW (Johnson and Wales) could.  Some folks palates just aren't built to detect certain flavors over others, or in some cases, be able to detect it at all.  I'm the kind of person that can taste something at a restaurant and tell you what's in it in about a minute.  Just lucky I guess.

That's one of the problems with some folks these days though.  They don't take the time to really TASTE their food.  They're in such a tremendous hurry to scarf it down and move on to the next task that they do just that.  Scarf it down and wonder why they have heartburn later.  I am ALWAYS the LAST person to finish eating.  It doesn't matter when I sat down or how quickly I made my plate, I will finish last.  Sometimes 30 minutes after everyone else.

My cooking is based on convenience, but it's so you can sit down when it's done and enjoy it.  I don't want to stand in the kitchen for 2 hours anymore than the next person, but I do want something that's easy, filling and awesome.  I believe in left-overs so usually I've made a lot because if it was that good then imagine how much better it'll be tomorrow!

The recipes I post here are meant to be re-created and tweaked so feel free!  If you tweaked it and it came out awesome, then let me know!  There's nothing I enjoy more than seeing people sit back from the table after they're done, rubbing their bellies or unbuttoning their pants because they're fat and happy now that they're done.  I cook because I enjoy seeing my creativity put a smile on someone's face.

Well, that and because I was hungry.