Hi. I’m Alisa. The one on the right.

I want to have this blog because there is literally nothing else that I do that inspires me like cooking for my family, thinking about recipes, reading cookbooks, watching documentaries about chefs, and eating weekend kitchen creations with my husband, Matt .  I am a photographer, and I love working with couples and weddings and especially love when they choose a good bakery to make their cake, but honestly I don’t stay up late thinking about photography. I think about food or cooking, or eating with my friends and family.  I had a little girl, Olive, in March of 2012 and since she started eating solid food at 6 months, I have found myself in the kitchen at the beginning of each week, excitedly coming up with stuff to blend up and freeze into little, multi-colored cubed portions of goodness that will keep her hair red and her cheeks rosy.  Hopefully.

 Eating with my new family is very important to me, and I want to start from the very beginning with Olive in the kitchen.  I plan on teaching her as soon as she can pull a stool up to the counter how to navigate the kitchen and make basic meals and follow simple recipes.  I think there is so much more than just cooking that can be learned in the kitchen.  Patience, timing, cleanliness, manual dexterity, care, concern, etc.  Our culture is governed by fast food and 10 minute lunch breaks and more foods in grocery stores that can live on the shelf than can live in the ground or on a tree or in a barn yard.   I want to do it better – I want to get back to the heart of sitting around a dinner table in laughter, or peace or even chaos, and spend more time there in the evenings than in front of the TV, or with my face illuminated by the glow of my phone.  I know no better way to accomplish this than to set the example for Olive.  If I don’t take time with my dinner, why should she?  If I snack randomly throughout the day, why can’t she?  If I am distracted by my phone during dinner, why can’t she play with her toys at dinner?  Teaching her will undoubtedly teach me in the process, and it’s already begun.

This blog will offer recipes for the family, blended up versions for babies and toddlers and advice for your cooking endeavors at home.  I plan on exploring these things along the way, as well, and tell of my successes and failures so that we can all learn together.

(don’t worry, none of my recipes include mulch)