Welcome!

As many of you know (or do not know), I have been writing a cookbook. Well, it is not so much a cookbook, as a compilation of recipes, directions, and assorted witty repartee. Ultimately, I aim to publish these odds and ends into a cookbook that I think could be titled "To Taste." All of the recipes are vegetarian, but as many of you who have eaten at my table know, they are not at all for vegetarians only. Also, a lot of these dishes are pretty healthy, but there are a few guilty pleasures thrown in (see the Breakfast Bread Pudding and my Baked Macaroni and Cheese). Most of these recipes are great for people of all ages, income, culinary skill and eating habits. Almost all of the recipes offer adaptations to meet the needs of vegan diets.

But I need help! I do not tend to measure anything when I cook, and instead depend upon my impeccably sensitive and highly-trained palate to season my dishes to perfection … alright, I'm just lazy. In the spirit of this great cookbookery experiment, I have no idea whether or not my "recipes" translate from inside my brain onto the page. Before I enter the hellish underworld of publishing, I thought it a good idea to format my "book" into a blog. Here is where you come in:

Try out my recipes! Please leave comments on the recipe(s) you try and let me know how it goes for you. For the less culinarily-inclined, I have also posted short videos about some cooking basics (i.e. "How to Chop an Onion in Three Ways" "How to Clean Garlic" and "Avocados 101"). Please watch them and let me know if they are helpful to you. Alternately, if you do not know how to accomplish a particular task in the kitchen, let me know and I will make a video about it (don't be shy … this gives me a chance to play with my beautiful new Mac).

Also, I thought it would be a cool idea for you all to take pictures of the food you make so I can use them on the blog, and possibly in a book. Did you bring the potato salad to a barbecue? Was the frittata a hit at your brunch? Did the Mexican lasagna come out particularly Mexicany? If you can, take pictures of any event where you serve the food, and especially you and your friends/family (hopefully) enjoying the food you made. The goal here is a sense of community.

The mission statement for the project is to make people feel comfortable in the kitchen, and also to highlight vegetarian food as not just healthy, but also satisfying, sexy, and craveable. I attempt to make my recipes as clear as possible, but you will see that I do not provide measurements for many ingredients. My thought in doing this is to convey the fact that cooking is all about taste (hence the title, "To Taste")and not freaking out about getting everything measured perfectly. My perception of inexperienced cooks is that many get overwhelmed with this aspect of cooking. I could be wrong about that, but I think that many people would enjoy cooking a lot more if they weren't bound to traditional recipes that require precise measurement.

Also, many of my recipes are up for debate. What I mean by that is if you don't have or don't like or don't know what an ingredient is, chances are, you can leave it out (or even replace it with something you like better). One of my most primary hopes is to write really approachable recipes that anyone can follow, and ultimately help people to become confident in the kitchen. If this is not the case in your experience with ANY of my recipes, please let me know.

Don't like a recipe? Think my writing sucks? Want more dessert recipes? Really want to learn how to make Ethiopian food? Let me know! I am extremely interested to see if any of this is appealing to people... even if my pride is on the line. And PLEASE! Pass this plea for help on to anyone you know who might be interested in the blog. (Strangers are always more honest anyway.)

OK! Onward!

-Steph