Well... Why start now?

Well I finally decided that  it was time to start sharing my love of the kitchen with others.   I have not always been someone who enjoyed cooking.  In fact about 5 years ago I thought it was more important to figure out which fast food restaurant I was going to overeat at, then to create something in the kitchen.   Then after my younger sister decided to challenge me to run a half marathon, there needed to be a change.

At that point in my life, the only place I had been running to was the refrigerator.  I was weighing in at the heaviest I had ever been, was "happy" but not what/who I wanted to be.   Kel (my sister and best friend) decided to sign us up for the half.  My choices at that point were to accept the challenge, or pay her back the entry fee.  Well the former college athlete in me decided that I was ready to accept the challenge.

Accepting this challenge meant a total life change.  No more extra value meals, no more diet coke, and no more eating carbs for comfort.  This meant taking the time to plan out healthy meals, snacks, and drinking a shit ton of water.  With all of the changes, I found a few passions - running albeit as slow as a turtle in peanut butter and cooking.

We completed that half marathon, and it was life changing in many ways.  I did something that I never thought this fatty fatty two-by-four would ever be able to accomplish, with a giant smile and sparked a passion I never really tapped into.

So I started going to techniques classes at Williams Sonoma (we will discuss these later), started truly  taking care of my kitchen accessories, saving money to get the next best kitchen accessory, and challenging myself to try different foods and spices.

I then decided to start my recipe club with what started as just 3 friends trying different recipes in a month to now an email I send out to around 15 people.  I pick a recipe that sounds interesting send it out to the group and those that can, make an attempt to recreate it.  We take a picture of our masterpieces, and discuss what we liked/disliked, changed etc.  I call it the ROW - Recipe of the Week, my plan with this blog is to share the ROW with everyone as well as any other recipes I use throughout the week.

I also plan to share the cool kitchen gadgets I find at WS (Williams Sonoma)!  You may get some funny stories out of my trials -  as well as stories from my real job which I also love!  For tonight though I am going to call it a night - stay tuned tomorrow though I am doing a beer can chicken!