I thought that my first official post should be food related, since food is what prompted me to start this whole project in the first place.  I’m a bit of a self-proclaimed “go-to” for food knowledge among my friends.  Now.  When I first started learning about food, it was somewhat of a self-inflicted accident.  My mom will say I was “a real fusspot” but I like to say that I was just particular.  As in, I don’t like when certain foods touch on the plate or certain textures, like cooked onions, or certain smells like raw onions, or certain tastes, like green onions. But I love A&W onion rings.

The rule in our house was if you didn’t want to eat what mom made for supper, you had to make something for yourself.  I’m pretty sure I lived off macaroni and butter, tacos and pizza for a good part of my tweens.  I eventually got bored and started branching out, reading cookbooks, watching Food Network and cooking for myself.

Cooking for myself meant that if I followed a recipe, I probably wouldn’t like half the ingredients and would have to change it up somehow.  That’s how I learned to cook and that’s how I still cook today.   This is why, friends, if you’ve ever asked me for a recipe for something, I’ve probably sent you a link to some recipe off Pinterest along with a detailed commentary on all the changes I made.  And you know what? That’s okay.  There is nothing wrong with making food that you love and want to eat.  If ever I have a recipe with an ingredient I don’t like, I swap it or skip it, and I encourage you to do the same.

The best part about my new blog is that now I can skip the commentary and just give you MY recipes, straight up.  You should probably have a well-stocked pantry with my go-to ingredients, so you can play along.  I almost always have these foods on hand because

a) I use them all the time and;

b) I can throw some pretty decent meals together sans fresh groceries (more on this later).

Most of the items on this list are dry goods or non-perishable canned goods, that will last you a long time once you purchase them.