So it begins...

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog! Enjoy for a moment, if you will, the delicious irony that the date of birth for myself and my blog are one and the same! Today, June 13th 2010, is my 20th Birthday, and seemed to me as good a day as any to begin my journey into blogging. I hope you all will enjoy the ensuing posts that will tell the tale of "my summer culinary adventure."

The event that instigated this perilous quest is one that many people my age encounter...college dining hall food. Dun...Dun...Dun!!! College students beware! All the rumors are true! While the first two weeks may lull you into a false sense of security, do not be deceived! the. food. is. nasty. After two years of consuming a strictly "dining hall and take-out diet", my taste buds are not amused. The question is; what to do about it? As the deadline for my college meal plan sign-up was quickly arriving and I had to decide: to meal plan or not to meal plan? Since I had just signed up for my first apartment I finally had a way out of the foul fare...a kitchen! So, after consulting with my father about the costs of buying ingredients vs. buying a meal plan, we determined that it would be just as expensive (or maybe less!) to cook all of my own meals as it would be to buy a meal plan again. The ensuing pros outweighed the cons and I bravely selected "no meal plan" in my room sign up process.

My taste buds approved.

Unfortunately I had overlooked a small snafu that threatened my new plan's success, I did not know how to cook. At least not real cooking. I had helped in the kitchen before and knew a few basic things, but when it came to magically transforming slimy raw meat into something delicious: I was stumped! So I decided to turn to the person who was responsible for my and my family's daily dietary survival...my Mom! Upon hearing of my new interest in learning (as she says) "The culinary arts", my mother happily agreed to teach me everything she knew about cooking. She even gifted me with a cook book called "Cooking Light: way to cook."
This book is full of helpful pictures and descriptions of almost any cooking technique a prospective cook could dream of, as well as practice recipes (that increase in difficulty from easy to hard) for new found skills.

Feeling newly armed with my mother's knowledge, a helpful cook book, and a few techie online cooking sites, I decided to dedicate my summer to the pursuit of crafting delicious nutritious food.

Let the blogging begin!