My Very First Blog!

I am so very excited!

I have been waiting to start a blog for longer than I can remember! My passion for food encourages me to share that passion with others...and since none of my friends are as crazy about cooking as I am...I am sharing it with everyone else that wants to read!

Food...mmmmmmm....where do I begin??? Well as I venture into my childhood, I only remember that I hated food and refused to eat...so where this sudden onset of food came about is still a mystery to me. I was born in Russia where good food and vodka were the staples of any great party! Both my mother and grandmother were wonderful cooks. I can still remember standing next to my mother as a little girl, watching her cook all the Russian classics.

Once we emigrated to America, my family quickly and willingly forgot their former Aethist and Communist ways and suddenly new foods had found their way into our kitchen. On high holidays, my aunt made brisket with roasted potatoes and matzo ball soup...and just like that I discovered the wonderful warmth of Jewish soul food. What could be better than a plate full of tender brisket and roasted aromatic veggies and potatos? I remember those butterflies in my stomach as I anticipated each holiday dinner...some feel them when they fall in love...I felt them when I heard the word "brisket"...

I was probablly the only 10-year old I knew that hurried home after school to watch "World Chef's". While other kids were sitting on their couches in front of the tv in a chocolate chip cookie induced trance, I would cuddle up next to my mom on our couch and watch the amazing delights that the World Chef's would prepare. Although my mom never made most of the things she saw them prepare, it was nice for both of us to escape into their kitchens for that hour.

I think that my mother was probablly the reason that my soul craves good, simple, food when I'm down or sick. Simple things always tasted better from her hands and made me feel better. My friends and I still recall her simple turkey breast sandwich; one piece of fresh bread, smothered in cream cheese layered with smoked Butterball turkey and 2 slices of tomato to finish it off. Ahh the simple pleasure and tastes in life sometimes truely are what you need.

I went to culinary school to continue the dream that my mother and I always shared: to open up a deli or cafe somewhere and call it our own. Whether that cafe will ever open is still up in the air...but my cooking and my love for food I owe to my mother...and in a way this blog is dedicated to her...I only hope that I can inspire other women with this blog the way my mother inspired me...