Welcome to E.A.T.T.!

Hi friends! Welcome to my online test kitchen. Before we start cooking, I want to make a few things clear. I chalk it up to my exceptional, albeit vague, liberal arts education; I define things mostly by what they’re not. I’m also obsessed with graphic organizers. Here I employ both—non-definitions and visual order—to convey to you why food makes everything better.

For my graphic organizer, I've gone with the Microsoft PowerPoint "SmartArt" that I will probably never use in my career or personal shenanigans because it's just so strange, and I've filled it out obscurely as follows:

((What E.A.T.T. is))

And for verbal learners....

What “Eat All The Things/Cathy Makes Food” is NOT:

Orderly: I’ve just put my own foot in my mouth by starting with this one, but this blog is 95% my attempt to chronicle my forays into experimental and copycat cooking and 5% a diversion from schoolwork and real-person work. So don’t expect pristine sentence construction, a logical ordering of recipes or thoughts on said recipes (I can’t help it if the first bite radically altered how I can even begin to talk about the prep work…how do food bloggers do that? Upload DSLR shots of the bread pudding WITH A BITE OUT OF IT before nonchalantly starting: “On Tuesday, I found this yellowed slip of paper in my grandmother’s estate and it was a bread pudding recipe!”), or typeface that we all can agree on. Okay fine. Who here doesn’t like Georgia? Right? Moving on.

Developed/refined/”of age”:  I attempted my first cakes at the now woefully late age of 6, in Sweden mind you, where they didn’t carry Easy Bake ovens yet, and besides, Cathy Makes Food Beta knew all about cakes. It turns out you don’t need flour packed equivalent to the desired final cake volume, and baking powder and eggs help with, erm, edible-ness. Flour and water in a large tray at 400 degrees do not a cake make.  But a cooking date with friends recently revealed to me that Beta Me was well on her way to making Indian chapati ! The stuff they give you at Zaroka!! I just skipped a few steps is all.

Anyway, the point is: This is a blog about eating and living. I hope you will give me feedback on how to improve and simplify recipes. I hope you will laugh with me when I describe an Ultra Failure or Catastrophe in the Kitchen (U.F.C.K.), and I hope you will forgive me for posting a lot of “quick lunch” and “weekday dinner” recipes to start. I’m writing for where I’m at in life right now, which is contentedly at college without a lot of free time or money.

As my tastes, access to ingredients, and lifestyle evolves, I promise this blog will do the same.

Expensive:  Here. Let’s set a rule right now: if the thing I’m telling you to make and eat costs more than it would for someone else to make it and for you to buy it to eat it, then let me know and I will revise the ingredient or tools list. As a reference, I never exceed $40/week on my personal grocery bill and I’ve never had to say “no” to fresh meats, seafood, produce, organics, etc. Repeat after me: “Lower food budget today, refundable tickets to Chiang Mai tomorrow!”

Ethnocentric: You’ll catch me referencing some of my food blogger heroes, or trying to replicate one of their recipes. One blogger whose food philosophy I’ve always admired is Mark Wiens over at Migrationology. Food is a fixture and a passion across all cultures, and even if that Thailand trip never pans out, at least you bought the refundable tickets and until you get stamp in your passport and the life-changing trip, let me convince you life. is. too. short. to. wait. for. ALL the cuisines!!! Have those pronunciation guides ready, my friends. We’re all anthropologists here. With taste buds!

Restriction-condoning:  As a woman, avid reader of cookbooks and food blogs, and health-conscious individual, this is an unrelenting and cruel facet of my every day, and I could spend hours chronicling my observations and reactions to our restrictive and substitution-happy food culture.   But for now, this is what I have to say: eat for your health, strength, and happiness. Give your body the best and it will reciprocate. For every “unhealthy” thing, there are or will be another hundred.

That said, I welcome your thoughts about safe and effective substitutes in recipes. I’m all for avocados as butter. I’m all for avocados in everything!

Stress-inducing: Do you ever reach that point, usually around 1 am, when every list starts to look like your to-do list and you start to panic when you try to Buzzfeed for fun? No? I love lists and precise measurements and finishing things but I promise to not number the steps in my recipes in case you came here for a cookie dough recipe to savagely devour the night before a midterm. Hey, no judgment. Seriously. Furthermore, I don't really measure much when I cook (the "eyeball" technique from Mesopotamian times works just fine), so why would I pretend to suddenly know how many teaspoons of extract we need? Actually, I'll just come out and admit it: really intense food blogs stress me out!!! I can't possibly make something look that good!! There are too many ingredients!!!! AHHHH!

I will also feature recipes by my 10-year-old brother, Jayden! Here he is:

And here is his food philosophy:

Back to what E.A.T.T. is NOT:

W2SIJFP: This is acronym I will drop on you if you're being "Way 2 Serious It's Just Food People."

Just about food: 

I HAVE OTHER HOBBIES! And a really cute dog. And soon, I will have my very own classroom! 

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Thanks for reading!

Happy bellies,

-C