tilly instilled a love of cooking at an early age for me. i grew up, got married and had two daughters. i have always worked full time and found a way to cook most every day.... despite lots of commuting to work, ballet classes, play rehearsals, soccer..... even when i am busy, cooking is fun for me. whether making simple dishes to get a quick dinner on the table or "catering" a post-wedding brunch, thanksgiving feast or christmas eve buffet.... i love it all.
ironically making cakes was not something i did much until my youngest daughter decided to tackle some of martha stewart's complicated cake recipes. as my daughters grew up and left home for college i started experimenting more in the kitchen. inspired by family trips to france and italy and the food tv revolution i tried more complex recipes.
my daughters moved to new york city and we all have blackberry phones. we started sending each other pictures of what we were eating every day. my daughter britany started nagging me about writing it all down so she could recreate the taste of home. (i tend to improvise). last summer, i started keeping a food recipe diary.... complete with hideous doodles - i am not creative with a pencil. fortunately my daughter kelsey is very artistic....she drew the tilly skillet for my blog and britany is my web engineer and creative marketing force. she is yelling at me and telling me what to type and i am ignoring her.
sometimes i make awesome gourmet food and my husband gives me that look that says do we have any hot dogs in the fridge? i remind him of how much jeffrey appreciates ina. he does eventually enjoy most of what i cook and my chocolate lab bailey loves everything i produce. (kibble with a side of bolognese sauce is one of his favs).
my friend karen once asked me for a recipe i had adapted for stuffing... i had not written down what i did and i did not tell her about the pound of bacon i had added. needless to say her's was a poor replica of mine. the notebook was a start at documenting my recipes, then i started using facebook to post recipes and pictures to friends and family... and now here i am writing a blog.... you might think i know what i am doing.... but i have no clue.
i hope to share good food i make over and over again, as well as some fun adventures in eating, shopping and traveling that mostly involve food with my family and friends.
