Welcome welcome! I hope you enjoy perusing this blog which is very much still in its infancy. I hope to add to it frequently and exchange cooking ideas, tips, and inspirations from fellow bloggers and readers. I don’t consider myself a professional cook, but I COULD be a professional eater. I am 100% a foodie, and apart from some very deadly food allergies, I am always game to try new and exotic things.
My love for cooking and creating comes from my time living in Italy, a foodie’s Valhalla. Italian remains my favorite food to cook and eat as well as my “forte”. Lately, however, I’ve found myself branching out, trying new ideas, and really stepping outside my cooking comfort zone. I’m supported in large part by my boyfriend who is equal parts a happy consumer of my cooking and a polite but honest critique. For the last 2 years I’ve been able to test dozens of new ideas on him, failing miserably with some, and excelling with others. The more grunts /moans of satisfaction I receive from him, the better I know it is. He is literally my cooking Guinea Pig. So much of my cooking is enhanced by the produce Lars grows for us in our own backyard. Everything from green onions, to fish peppers, to strawberries, and banana peppers.On the horizon we’ve got corn, chard, kale, melons, brussels sprouts and much more. So look forward to many shout outs to him and quite possibly a Guinea Pig rating of each meal I post. Living in San Diego is such a blessing when it comes to growing your own food. Our seasons are basically one long spring, a few months of summer and 2 months of grey with occasional rain fall (rough I know!) This weather enables us to grow what others consider to be season specific produce pretty much year long. It’s this idea that has inspired the title of my blog.
Another great contributor to my recent cooking adventures has been the produce we receive from our local CSA (Community Sustained Agriculture.) If you’re not a member of a local CSA or are unfamiliar with them, I HIGHLY encourage you to look into it. Our CSA is through Urban Life Farms / Urban Life Ministries. Their link can be found in my profile. Urban Life Farms is a ministry backed urban farm dedicated to transforming vacant plots of land into self-sustaining farms, providing jobs and job skills training to urban youth, cultivating health and wellness education, and growing fresh healthy produce for youth and local communities. I cannot say enough good things about belonging to a CSA. Not only do we have weekly access to 100% farm fresh ingredients, which drastically improves the quality of our meals, but we also have the opportunity to invest in our community, support local youth, and improve our diets. I will surely comment more and more over time about the benefits of participating in a CSA, so stay tuned.
In reality this blog was inspired by my friend Jimmy (who is literally about to depart for a 2 year adventure in Ghana with the Peace Corps, bye Jimmy!) After months of saturating my Facebook and Instagram accounts with photos of food, cooking, and recipes, Jimmy suggested I start a blog. So here it is! I hope you enjoy it!
Cooking through the seasons: the adventures of a San Diego Gastronaut. 