Start of something new.

After mulling around the idea for over a year, I've decided (obviously) to start my very own food blog.
I figured a good way to start this off would be to give a little of my history, how I came to love cooking and how I ended up here today.

As long as I can remember I've always loved cooking. More so, I loved food.
From an early age I can recall helping my mothers (yes, I have TWO) in the kitchen as much as possible. Anything I could convince them to let me do ( some tasks I had to beg to be involved in), and more so bug/annoy until they gave in or kicked me out of the kitchen. The work of it, the smells, colors, plating and ultimately the enjoyment of your hard labor by people you love. Even from a young age I found this to be exhilarating! While other kids watched cartoons, I watched cooking shows. Other kids colored, I thumbed the pages of cook books. By the age of ten, I was able to fully cook and serve dinner for a family of five. A lifelong love had found me.

While I thrive today as a "home cook", I did make a go at it professionally. I worked my tail off to completed a one year study in culinary arts. No, not in a community college, but at a vocational school.
While a year seems like very little time to complete anything, the course was an 'at your own pace' kind of deal, taking the average student three years to complete.
I then followed that by completing a six month unpaid internship at a well known local restaurant, earning a job offer of a permanent position. I took this all as a great sign from above, I would become a chef!

But like many male driven career field's, I found myself working twice as hard, in half the time for a quarter the recognition of that of my male counterparts. While my technique never suffered, my creativity and love of the art of cooking did. Loathing each day that my food was simply a "job" and no longer a labor of love, I made the choice to changed career paths.

Years have passed since then, but I still regard the choice to leave professional cooking as the best choice for me. I continue to expand my culinary skills, techniques and knowledge base daily. And while I am primarily a homemaker, I have found it as an opportunity to indulge my family to healthy and wholesome (leaning toward gourmet) meals that leave my soul satisfied.

I plan on using this blog to document the meals I make, the techniques I use, how they can be replicated, smart use of portion control, multitasking and special emphasis on military family cooking.

I hope that you all find my musings informative, my words inspiring and my food satisfying.
If not, this is probably not the blog for you, feel free to switch back to whatever you were doing before!