I am not a chef.

No surprises there. I do not even have years and years of home cooking experience under my belt. I didn’t even like cooking until I hit fifty which was about eight years ago. My husband, Mike, liked to cook and I was very happy to let him have the kitchen. I knew how to cook, but wasn’t too willing to spend much time doing so.

Mike passed on almost twelve years ago and subsequently I started my journey of making meals for myself. I certainly had no problem finding vast quantities of food. There were plenty of fast food places around and items in the grocery store that could be grabbed and eaten with minimal labor. The first few years I grudgingly prepared food, but little by little I started thinking about food in a new way. Not just what could I make quickly and devour, but I began to savor the actual physical act of taking separate ingredients and putting them together in a way that was delightful.

I found Mike’s recipes and pulled out my mom’s recipe box. There were some really cool dishes just waiting for me to try them. I soon found success. I was now able to make for myself all those specialties I had been hungry for. And it wasn’t that hard. We had all kinds of cookbooks. My head was soon buried in them on a daily basis. I knew Mike had found recipes on the internet, so I soon hit the food websites. This was fun! Initially after Mike died, I dreaded going to the grocery store. Now I started to enjoy it as I scoured the aisles for different products for my latest recipe. Some of my sadness over losing Mike started to dissipate as I found success doing an activity that he had enjoyed. My journey continues as I read cookbooks, websites, and magazines full of recipes and food information. Please join me as I share some of what I learn with you.