Monthly Archives: October 2009

Welcome!

I never thought the day would come when I would start my own blog, and yet here I find myself about to make my debut into this strange and often technically scary world of blogging. And you know what? I’m excited! Despite the fact that I do not speak HTML, I have decided to take the plunge. Blogging? Everyone seems to be doing it these days. But I have to say it’s somewhat scary putting yourself out there, completely open to public ridicule and rejection. Right now I’m kind of feeling like the new kid on the first day of school. Will the other kids like me?!

My goal in starting this blog is simple: to have fun! I enjoy cooking, I love food, and I am obsessed with cookbooks. I look forward to numerous culinary adventures, discovering new chefs and favourite recipes, and most importantly getting to know my cookbook collection intimately. Hopefully people will join me on my blogging journey so I won’t be lonely. It’s nice to know you have friends, especially in the vast world of the internet!

Ultimately my plan is to work my way through my extensive anthology of cookbooks, documenting my successes and failures along the way and providing an honest review of each book from the perspective of the average home cook. I realize that the results of any tested recipe are going to be subjective and potentially exposed to non-recipe related errors (such as equipment malfunctions, or user errors i.e. my screw-ups). But I guess that’s my point. If cookbooks are supposed to be produced for the masses, the majority of people are not professionally trained chefs. So the way I see things, if you’re marketing to the general population your recipes should be accessible to this target audience.

Before I get too far ahead of myself, I should probably introduce my cast of characters: First of all, you’ll notice that for the purposes of this blog my husband is personified as Mr. Spock. This is mainly because he tends to truly “spock out” when it comes to food, kitchen gadgets or cooking techniques. In fact, he has been known to spend hours on the internet researching things like commercial grade meat slicers. Because our family really needs one of those sitting on our countertop. I will also make frequent references to our two daughters, ages 3 and 10 months. They are the main reasons I’m putting together a collection of family favourite recipes, to be gifted to them when they grow up and create homes of their own.

Anyways, take a look around and tell me what you think! The Home page will house The Back Burner section; basically food related musings from my brain. Under Reviews you will find cookbook reviews and a synopsis of tested recipes. The Recipes section will contain a handful of recipes from each cookbook tested. Be sure to check back often for updates and new posts!