Smitten Kitchen

Have your heard of Deb? She is my favorite. I would love to be her bff. Shout out!

I have made my way through (probably) hundreds of food blogs ever since I discovered my cooking obsession during spring break my 3rd year at UVA. Three of my friends were heading down to Florida and I had planned to go with them. It was going to be a blasty blast. We all drove up to my house the day before our 15-hour trip down, with the intention of picking up some stuff I needed as well as a friend who was meeting us in NoVA. Then, tragedy of all tragedies, my mom explained I had to choose between spring break in Florida and beach week with my sorority. Since beach week was more of a the-whole-school-goes-and-has-a-week-long-party-in-Myrtle thing, I chose beach week. More bang for my buck (it was only $40 since we crammed 15 people into a tiny house...that's another story). Anyway, I still had to drive my commrades back to Cville where they were leaving for the trip (I had driven them all to NoVA). The resentment at having to give up the trip kept me from driving back home so there I was, stuck at school. Thankfully, my boyfriend at the time was working there so he was stuck as well. I decided that, without anything else to do all day, I should cook a different, fancy dinner for two each night. It went swimmingly and I spent the rest of our year together cooking for him (sometimes happily and sometimes begrudgingly).

He is in the past but my need to cook, especially for those I love, remains. And it is fed by the many many food blogs I have found. Seeing what others create and hearing their stories of inspiration gives my ideas and offers a sort of second-degree support system when I am worried I won't be able to accomplish something.

Enter Smitten Kitchen. I found this blog way back when and it has been a favorite ever since. Some have come and gone, offering excitement at first then dwindling (I also forget about a few I really love which makes me sad but there are just so many to keep track of) but Smitten Kitchen has held strong. I have made a few things from her site (the chicken and mushroom marsala is a fave and leftovers are currently in my fridge) and bookmarked countless others.

So there it is. A glimpse at why I am the way I am. And a fabulous blog. Seriously. Go check it out. The cook something!