Welcome to the blog!

Hello, readers! Both of you! Well, thanks to some never-ending prodding from my sister, I've finally started a cooking blog. I love cooking, and am always experimenting with some recipe or another. Sam finally pestered me into blogging about it.

I guess I should start with a little intro. I've never taken cooking classes. Nope, not even Home Ec. I'm not a chef. Never even cooked in a restaurant. I guess that qualifies me to write a (hopefully) non-presumptuous food blog, no?

My mom got me started on cooking when I was very young. Lola was my Emperor Palpatine; an Old School cook with an insanely wide food repertoire and knowledge, and one who would tolerate neither failure nor demands for exact ingredient measurements. Learning to cook under Lola Palpatine was interesting, needless to say. She produces awesome food by feel, by sight and by aroma, with reckless disregard for anything as trifling as teaspoon measures and meat thermometers. She refused to dumb down her methods for her apprentice. I still remember asking questions like, "Mom, how do you cut the chicken?", only to get the reply, "You pick up the knife and start cutting." Asking, "Mom, how much soy sauce do you use?" would get the response, "Enough for it to taste right." I admit it...at times, I whined. I begged. I pleaded for release. But no, she wouldn't let me off. So anyway, that's how I came to cook.

My cooking style? First and foremost, I'm cheap. Cheap almost to a fault. I practically feel physical pain at the thought of cooking something like "veal with truffle oil reduction." Wonderful for a Food Network chef who doesn't actually have to pay for his ingredients, but horrible for us peons stuck in reality. I also don't like paying for such things as pre-sliced carrots, pre-cooked chicken, or chicken breast strips. Convenience costs money. Rest assured that majority of my meal ingredients were either on sale, store brand, or reduced for quick sale.

Also, my mother passed down her curse. I don't measure. Baked goods are the exception, but sometimes I don't even bother then. I throw in ingredients until it looks right. Recipe exchange pot lucks throw me into fits. For me, the hardest part of doing this blog is trying to keep track of exactly how much of each item I use. So be a little patient if there are a lot of "to taste" or "about this much" ingredients. I'm trying, I really am.

And finally, I have no patience for fads and gimmicks. Our ancestors seemed to make sliced eggs quite well, without the patented hard-boiled egg slicer. It's entirely possible to cook a chicken well without the aid of a food thermometer. You don't need to roast a turkey in a special oven bag to make it tender. I'm sure you get the picture.

So anyway, on to the food! These are all recipes and techniques I've accumulated, and I hope everyone enjoys them.