By Way of Introduction

What better way to start life in a new apartment living alone for the first time ever than by starting a food blog, I ask you? Now you’d think I started a food blog because I moved into an apartment with some phenomenally equipped kitchen. Um, no, I’m starting a food blog in despite of my kitchen: that sorry excuse furnished by a landlord with a strangely overdeveloped sense of aesthetics and remarkably underdeveloped sense of how kitchens actually … work. Something tells me his wife does all the cooking in his own house. I ought to explain that I first saw the apartment while it was being renovated, and the sheer enormity of the space, the height of the ceilings and the quality of the light completely enchanted me. One month later, on my move-in day, I found … a stove, a sink with a counter built around it leaving only exactly enough space for a drying rack and a fridge. Mind, between the sink and the fridge, where you would reasonably expect a continuation of the counter, there was simply nothing. But here’s the kicker: the walls were tiled with gorgeous shiny brand-new white tiles painted in an attractive red and white pattern. All the walls.  Because my landlord decided not to put in any kitchen cabinets. Any cabinets at all. And the cherry on top had to be, without a doubt, the false drawers in the only counter space available. 

But I couldn’t very well move out of a huge airy apartment ten minutes away from the University with heat included in the rent because of a lack of counter space and cabinets, now could I? So being the resourceful girl that I am, I paid a visit to the friendly and amazing Second Mile down the street and purchased a hulking kitchen cupboard with drawers. And this is what I mean when I say that I am starting a food blog in despite of my kitchen. Perhaps even to spite my kitchen, I don’t know. 

I suppose at this point some indication as to what kind of food blog you’re getting yourself into, fair reader, might be in order. If you are one of those people who reads Epicurious and feels their heart sink at the incredible array of expensive sounding ingredients (arctic char??) and bizarre “special equipment” indications … don’t worry, I’m with you. I love to cook, but I love to cook for fun, and fun for me means simplicity and deliciousness. I’m a graduate student, after all, and I need just enough cooking to unwind – it’s my stress relief, not its source. Also, I am a graduate student, so I won’t be getting all fancy-schmancy on you either. I gather recipes from friends, family, the Internet, cookbooks and my own imagination and find ways to alter, simplify and generally adapt to my erm, creative?? impulses. (I have been helpfully informed that my recipe writing is “… impressionistic” and that watching me cook is like observing a knife-wielding tornado in action. While neither of these assessments is particularly prepossessing, people do seem to enjoy the results, the two snarky commentators included). 

So be prepared for a whole lot of veggie (green leafy things seemingly fit for bunnies, seitan, tempeh -- yep, the whole shebang), an attempt at baking once Philthadelphia stops being disgusting, and an array of my interpretive takes on my parents’ interpretive takes on traditional Russian cuisine. :)