Hi! My name’s Theresa, and cooking is my love language.
When I want to do something special for people I care about, it almost always involves food. I even catered my own wedding, because that was how I could show our friends and family how much they meant to us. (Plus, super tight budget, ya’ know.)
Sometimes cooking is a creative project; sometimes it’s a rote exercise.
Cooking is a mental break, a time to let loose and have fun. Some of my happiest times are dicing and chopping while listening to music. Jazz, blues, classical, rock, metal, show tunes – whatever fits my mood.
Cooking is a physical break. Most days, I’m sitting at my desk for hours. A stint in the kitchen gets me up off my derriere and moving my behind.
Why do I love to cook so much? Well, first of all, I love to eat. I love food and, while my husband jokes that I’m the gourmet and he’s the gourmand, I’m not real picky. When people ask me my favorite type of cuisine, I say “Food.” I love Chinese and Mexican and Greek and Italian and American (whatever that is) and Indian and Thai and pizza and wings and salads and oh, I love food!
I also love to see the smile on a loved one’s face, the moan of appreciation, the reach for second helpings when I serve something I’ve prepared. My mom’s lactose intolerant, among other allergies and aversions, and it’s thrilling to make “ricotta” stuffed shells or caesar dressing that she can eat. Our wedding guests included multiple lactose-intolerant people as well as celiacs and diabetics, so I had to figure out a menu that would work for everyone.
(I came up with a buffet: a salad bar, a cheese station including goat options and rice crackers, gluten-free meatballs, pulled pork, coleslaw, and Asian chicken lettuce wraps.)
The thing is, I’m not a chef, and while I’ve taken a couple of cooking classes, I’ve pretty much learned on my own through trial and error and paying attention to chef’s choices when dining out – and with my site The Local Tourist I’ve eaten out a lot. I’ve got oodles of cookbooks, although I could always use more.
This site is something I didn’t think I’d ever do. I never wanted to be a food blogger. I don’t consider myself a recipe creator or equipped to give people advice on how to make the best insert item here.
So this site isn’t about me teaching anyone how to cook. It’s about sharing my love of cooking. It’s about posting what worked for me, mainly so I can find it later and do it again. I’ll add a few family recipes, too, so that we can all make slumgullion or Grandpa Goodrich’s Molasses Sugar Cookies any time the urge strikes.
This site is about my love of cooking and eating and sharing. This site is my love language.