You might be wondering why I’ve brought you here today.

I used to be a high school English teacher (surprise surprise), and when I taught seniors in the fall of 2018, I decided to try something somewhat crazy with my 12th graders in to make things a bit more interesting for my senioritis-infected class. I started us down the path of a project called 20Time in which we devoted 20% of our time (or one class day a week) to an independent passion project. I learned about this project from my favorite teacher blogger and YouTuber Laura Randazzo, who does it with her students every year, and I thought we’d give it a go. The kicker is that I also had to complete a 20Time project, so I decided I’d learn how to cook.

The blog you’re visiting is the product of that project. Even though the project ended in mid-December of 2018 and I left teaching the same semester, I decided I wanted to keep the blog and turn it into a more personal outlet for my creativity, writing, and my new cooking pursuits.

I’ve wanted to learn to cook for some time, but I never feel capable, especially compared to my culinary-degreed husband and my restaurant-experienced in-laws. If a meal was to be made, there wasn’t much benefit to me making it. I’d just make a mess and sub-par food compared to the guys, so why bother?

Well, I threw that kind of thinking in the garbage where it belongs. I want to learn how to cook because it’s a valuable skill and something I should know. I want to make something I can share with others and be proud of. I want to make something from scratch for Thanksgiving and have people request seconds or the recipe. And I want to make my own birthday cake and have it be awesome.

The goal of this blog is to share not just recipes but lessons and ideas learned throughout the entire process, not just individual dishes. I hope this can be a resource for others also wanting to learn how to cook or who just want to try something new.

Most of all, I want it to be a resource for myself. If I can create dishes that I and others can enjoy, I want to have the confidence to practice and try again and try new things. And what better instructions to follow than my own? If I can’t cook from my own instructions, how can I expect anyone else to? I want this to be a testament to my ability to learn and adapt and try new things. I want it to show my future self that yes, you can cook, and here’s the proof. I want to document this process so that if my daughter ever wants to learn to cook and feels intimidated, she can see that her mom did it and managed just fine.

If you’re still with me, thanks for reading. May everything you cook taste delicious and be devoured in its entirety by your dinner guests, who then go back for seconds.