So it begins

Welcome to my new blog! I have been toying with the idea of starting my own blog for a while now, but I never really knew where to start. What would it be about? Would anyone actually read it? Then came New Years and my resolution: this year I will learn how to cook! I love food, and I mean I really love food. I love that it brings people together, the memories around a good meal and the way certain foods feel like home. Growing up in the south I always enjoyed how certain homes just always had food prepared. Every time I walked into my best friends house growing up there was always the smell of delicious food. I may not remember who was wearing what designer in high school, but I sure remember the time my best friend, her brother and I sat down and polished off a giant bowl of the best seven layer dip I have ever encountered.  I have always wanted to create that feeling in my home, that it would be a gathering place of delicious smells and wonderful memories.

My family did not have the traditional southern food trait, but over the years there have been certain recipes and traditions that stick. A few Christmas's ago my mom put together a cookbook for our family with all of our favorite recipes so that the kids in the family would be able to make our traditional meals. This book is something I treasure and bake out of regularly. However even with that amazing book in hand, this girl does not know how to cook. Raw chicken freaks me out, I am sometimes amazed I still have fingers left after attempting to chop up vegetables, I almost died trying to make sweet potato fries recently, and I am a firm believer that a bowl of cereal is a perfectly good dinner when you would only be cooking for yourself.

However, I am fortunate to have a boyfriend who is a killer cook! He had me hooked from the very first meal he cooked me. So with some help and pointers from him I am going to take the next year to learn how to cook, and not just grilled cheese sandwiches and quesadillas ( for the record I can make a killer quesadilla!) but real meals that real people would love to eat. The kind of food that will create memories. The idea of a blog became a way to document my adventures in the kitchen, to show improvements and disasters (I imagine there will be a few of these...). So in a Julie and Julia inspired way here is my new blog baby!

I also plan on putting up things that inspire me, awesome finds, cool designs and anything else that I find along the way.

So welcome, please leave feedback, recipes or anything else you feel like sharing, and thank you for bearing with me as I learn this wonderful blog world!