About the notebook

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2007

In the beginning...

I've always liked to cook and bake.  My grandmother used to drive me crazy when I was a kid, by saying how I would "make some man a wonderful wife someday."  Early on, I learned everything from my mom, who learned from her mom.  I especially enjoyed baking, and the compliments I'd get from people on the things I made.  

Over time, my cooking and baking started to evolve.  I bought a few cookbooks.  Then I discovered cooking magazines.  I acquired some more cookbooks.  I found cooking shows on PBS and then on Food Network.  I have a degree in Chemistry, but my current occupation has nothing to do with that, and I found that experimenting with baking was a way to feed my analytical side.  It should come as no surprise that I have cookbooks from Alton Brown and that I subscribe to Cooks Illustrated.  A couple of people suggested that maybe I should keep track of what I was doing, so I could make notes on the recipes I tried and recreate successful variations if I wanted to.  In May 2005, I bought myself a notebook and started to do just that.

Just recently, I discovered food blogs.  I can't believe it took me so long.  And as I'm sure happens to a lot of people, one thing lead to another.  I started reading a couple of blogs on a daily basis.  Then I had a little free time (something that doesn't happen often with two small children and a full-time job), and I found a few more.  And I started to think, hey maybe I should give that a try myself.  I still plan to use my notebook while I'm cooking, but this blog will give me a place to put more detailed notes as well as photos.  I guess we'll see how it goes...