Walking before running

Wow.  I made it.  Some would call me a old-fashioned.  I prefer a hand-written thank you note sent by post, a nice new pen and paper to jot down my thoughts...I'm a moleskine fanatic.  So it's with great anticipation and trepidation that I begin this blog.  

I want to start as I mean to go on, and I always have high hopes and expectations.  This is my personal mission:

For now, I will be happy to write often, to cook often and of course, eat often.  Furthermore, I will continue to discuss food with my friends, family and any stranger who will listen or tell me what it is about food that inspires them.  I've been asking people for years what they cook at home and what their mother made them growing up.  "What does your family make for special occasions, holidays, celebrations?  Have you got a recipe to share?"  Let me scribble that down.  Answers to these questions have given me true insight into people's lives, and made me want to cook. I want to hear it all, except this time, I'll be writing it down and sharing it with you.

It seems you have to take something pretty seriously in order to write about it all the time.  So I'll start by sharing a dirty little secret with you:  I've always got food on the brain- it's an obsession.  My husband is always amused by the amount of planning that goes into even the most modest of mid-week meals.  Nothing's ever perfect, but it's from the freshest ingredients I can get my hands on and I'm passionate about where my food comes from.  I promise to share all of this- even the disasters. 

I've just returned to the US after 10 years in London, to Chicago, the land of hot dogs and Budweiser...or so I thought.  The more I dig, the more culinary delights I find in this town.  I spent my decade in London cooking, traveling, and learning about the food that surrounded me.  I single-handedly converted a man (who I later married) from eating beans on toast to trying (and loving) anything I put in front of him.  I make a mean cup of "proper" English tea with one sugar and biscuits that stand up to dunking.  More on that later.

I love Marmite, Coleman's mustard, English ale and Sunday roasts, and I've got the dual-passport to prove it (see more in About Me).  Unknown to many Americans, England boasts some of the freshest, most local ingredients I have ever found.  Time spent across Europe and Asia only opened my eyes further.  

My sister affectionately calls me Brittiana...a Brit from Indiana, with a mixed up vocabulary of cockney and manc.  I'll take it.  I'll never stop using the word rubbish.  My love for all things Americana never died... and now that I'm back in Chicago, I hope to share my love of all the foods and people I encountered in England, through all my travels along the way, and what I find back here in the mid-west.

So, here goes.