Welcome.
Here's the thing: I love food.
More specifically, I love to eat flavorful, well-prepared, high-quality food, but cannot afford to frequent restaurants that serve such fare as often as I would like. So, over the years I have taken the DIY approach to eating, meaning that I have very reluctantly ventured into the world of cooking. I did so with no training whatsoever, unless watching competitive cooking shows like "Iron Chef," "Iron Chef America," "Top Chef," and "Chopped" counts (which from my experience, surprisingly, does every so often). To me, cooking is essentially an exercise in following directions, mixed with creativity, at least a superficial knowledge of ingredients, and a little luck. It is also a skill that anyone can learn, as I myself can attest.
I'm undertaking this blogging venture for three reasons:
1) I love to eat the food I cook.
2) People who eat my food seem to love it as well (at least they say that they do to my face, which must count for something).
3) I want a place to share my own original recipes, and I don't exactly like the idea of giving up "ownership" by posting them on AllRecipes.com (which does have great recipes, by the way).
We could all be horribly, horribly wrong, but know that the recipes I share here have been vetted, however loosely. I will only post recipes that I'm proud to serve and that I believe are worth your time and effort to prepare. Along the way, I'll write about specific ingredients and kitchen tools that interest me as well.
Many recipes you'll find on other websites or in cookbooks offer estimated preparation and cooking times, but I generally won't do that for a couple of reasons. First, cooking is about achieving a desired outcome, such attaining as degree of doneness, thickness, crispiness, etc. that doesn't always occur in a prescribed period of time. I'll let you know what you should be looking for, what that outcome looks like. Any cooking time I do offer is merely a guide rather than a gospel. Second, I'm incredibly fastidious when it comes to knife work, which when combined with a lack of proper knife skills and a perpetual fear of cutting myself, means that it takes me a really long time. If I shared how long it takes me to cook a dish, I doubt anyone would bother. But I make devote the time and exert the effort because I believe that cooking can be much more than concocting fuel to keep our bodies running. It's an act of love, and a well-prepared home-cooked meal expresses a profound appreciation for those who partake of it, at least in my opinion.
If you're wondering about the seemingly uninspired blog title, be aware that I briefly entertained the thought of coming up some descriptive, food-related title, but I couldn't think of anything that didn't sound pretentious and corny, so "Erik's Food Blog" it is. And would you really want to cook something from an assonance-laden site like "Erik's Edible Eatables" anyway? Me neither.
I do a fair amount of eyeballing when it comes to ingredients, so the recipes published on this blog will have approximations when it comes to amounts. As a jazz musician, I'm no stranger to improvisation. That approach informs my cooking, and I believe it serves me well in the kitchen. Here's my proposition: I'll do my very best to estimate, and if you're the type of person who requires detailed measurements, you'll do your best to relax.
That's about all by ways of a preface. If you actually bother to cook any of the recipes I post, I'd really appreciate your honest feedback.
Enjoy.
More specifically, I love to eat flavorful, well-prepared, high-quality food, but cannot afford to frequent restaurants that serve such fare as often as I would like. So, over the years I have taken the DIY approach to eating, meaning that I have very reluctantly ventured into the world of cooking. I did so with no training whatsoever, unless watching competitive cooking shows like "Iron Chef," "Iron Chef America," "Top Chef," and "Chopped" counts (which from my experience, surprisingly, does every so often). To me, cooking is essentially an exercise in following directions, mixed with creativity, at least a superficial knowledge of ingredients, and a little luck. It is also a skill that anyone can learn, as I myself can attest.
I'm undertaking this blogging venture for three reasons:
1) I love to eat the food I cook.
2) People who eat my food seem to love it as well (at least they say that they do to my face, which must count for something).
3) I want a place to share my own original recipes, and I don't exactly like the idea of giving up "ownership" by posting them on AllRecipes.com (which does have great recipes, by the way).
We could all be horribly, horribly wrong, but know that the recipes I share here have been vetted, however loosely. I will only post recipes that I'm proud to serve and that I believe are worth your time and effort to prepare. Along the way, I'll write about specific ingredients and kitchen tools that interest me as well.
Many recipes you'll find on other websites or in cookbooks offer estimated preparation and cooking times, but I generally won't do that for a couple of reasons. First, cooking is about achieving a desired outcome, such attaining as degree of doneness, thickness, crispiness, etc. that doesn't always occur in a prescribed period of time. I'll let you know what you should be looking for, what that outcome looks like. Any cooking time I do offer is merely a guide rather than a gospel. Second, I'm incredibly fastidious when it comes to knife work, which when combined with a lack of proper knife skills and a perpetual fear of cutting myself, means that it takes me a really long time. If I shared how long it takes me to cook a dish, I doubt anyone would bother. But I make devote the time and exert the effort because I believe that cooking can be much more than concocting fuel to keep our bodies running. It's an act of love, and a well-prepared home-cooked meal expresses a profound appreciation for those who partake of it, at least in my opinion.
If you're wondering about the seemingly uninspired blog title, be aware that I briefly entertained the thought of coming up some descriptive, food-related title, but I couldn't think of anything that didn't sound pretentious and corny, so "Erik's Food Blog" it is. And would you really want to cook something from an assonance-laden site like "Erik's Edible Eatables" anyway? Me neither.
I do a fair amount of eyeballing when it comes to ingredients, so the recipes published on this blog will have approximations when it comes to amounts. As a jazz musician, I'm no stranger to improvisation. That approach informs my cooking, and I believe it serves me well in the kitchen. Here's my proposition: I'll do my very best to estimate, and if you're the type of person who requires detailed measurements, you'll do your best to relax.
That's about all by ways of a preface. If you actually bother to cook any of the recipes I post, I'd really appreciate your honest feedback.
Enjoy.
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