Food as I see (or taste) it :-)

My first post! How exciting! Making my thoughts and opinions publicly known - interesting.

Well - this blog will be as you may have guessed - is about my experiences with food! The good, bad and down right YUCK!

Concurrent with this blog, is my book and anxts about starting my own business. Do I have a business plan, not yet. But what I REALLY want to do is talk about food, make food, teach people about food and travel......about food :-)

For me, cooking and baking is a comfort, an art, a joy, sometimes frustration, but ALWAYS a way of showing love. I did not (unfortunately) get to hang on my matriarchs' apron strings, but during those times we were together, oh how I wish I could've stopped time. My first and last box cake was when I was 14. And I NEVER looked back.

I've ALWAYS been fascinated by the process of doing things. Not only with food, but life. No matter the frustation or pain in doing so, there is such a relief in knowing that I did something. I created it or I took it on head on. When that thing whatever it is, is completed, I...am....proud. In the vein of cooking/baking, I get to take something from it's very basics and attempt to make it more glorious, show off it's assests if you will.

This, the baking of a cake or cooking thanksgiving dinners, is how I show and a way I experience love.

It's really interesting how I came to that realization, I didn't always know that about myself. I was dating someone and one day made his favorite dinner (this was not the first time I cooked for someone, but the most poignant). I LITTERALLY worked and agonized all day on the meal. The meatloaf (which I used 3 different meats), the mashed potatoes, the vegetables AND the pecan pie. Now, I am SEVERLY allergic to all nuts, can't have 'em...they'll kill me. But because it was his favorite, I had no quoms about baking it. I just wanted everything to be perfect for him and I made enough food for him to have lunch for a week. Well, when he got to my place, dinner wasn't ready yet...he complained. When we finally did sit to eat.....he complained. He asked me why I'd made so much and I explained that I was making enough for him to have lunch for a week. When I gave him the pie.....he complained. He asked why I had made him alll that pie. He NEVER ONCE said Thank You. I....WAS.....HEART-BROKEN! I just wanted to curl up and cry.

After we broke up (much too long after that), I realized that this was a love language for me. I was exposing my heart and he rejected my love. It was a VERY valuable, yet completely hurtful experience. BUT knowing that about myself has given me so much power. I'm glad to say that I have someone now who not only accepts this foodie thing about me, but more than anyone else (except my parents) knows that it is my passion. Being in the kitchen for and with him is a true joy and I am so very blessed!

I say all of that to say, that I don't believe I'm the only one who feels that way or had that experience. Cooking is naturally nurturing and when it's rejected, it can be un-bearingly painful. I hope through these posts, you (whoever you are) will come to love or love again....food. Love food in all of it's beauty.

Food is as much cultural and familial as it is personal. We all have our ways of eating and experiencing food. For some it's a comfort and for others, it's merely a means to an end. Whereever people are on this pendulum, I am so very glad to be a conduit ;-)

Thank you sooo very much for taking the time to read my blog, I realize it is an investment.

In blogs to come, look forward to my own version of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, recipes success and disasters and of course - pictures and a video now and then.

HAPPY FOODING!!!!!!!

-Kimberly