A Little About Me

I can't just start this blog with a post on Nutella and not explain myself. Who am I? Why am I here? Why do I love food so stinkin' much?

When I was young, I loved to bake. My first cookbook was Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse Cookbook: Favorite Recipes from Mickey and His Friends (I don't have the cookbook anymore, so if you want to buy it for me that'd be pretty cool). My favorite recipe in the book was for caramel corn. I made it several times, and would get so excited every time I baked the caramel on the popcorn for just the right amount of time, creating a buttery, caramel crunch. I was even more excited when my treats would quickly disappear. That means other people liked what I baked! Liked it enough to eat it! I realized that I could make people happy doing something that made me happy.

Doing what I do best with some pain au chocolat at Tartine Bakery in San Francisco

Unfortunately it wasn't until my junior year of college that I really got into baking. I took a job at a bakery on campus, and later the next year a second job at a french bakery in town. From 5am to 11pm I was either baking, studying, baking, at class, or baking. I loved it. That year I learned how to make laminated doughs, decorate cakes with fondant, mix large batches of bread, pipe intricate designs on cookies and so much more. I couldn't get enough. Around that time I also started my first blog, Cake 'N Bake. I chronicled all my baking successes and failures for about two years, and my friend Jessica even wrote about my blog in our college's annual journalism magazine.

Blogging is what I was born to do

After finishing college, I got a job at Bob's Red Mill in Portland, Oregon. Bob's Red Mill is an awesome company that sells anything and everything whole grain, and has a lot of gluten-free options as well. I was beginning to learn its not only about making things taste good, but its also about eating things that are good for you and treating your body right. It was then that a couple of coworkers, a friend and I decided to start The Foodie Foursome, a blog about eating healthy and living green. In the same month I became a contributor to Bob's Red Mill Baking Blog. Testing recipes, making cakes and blogging took over my life. My side business Pastel Cake & Pastry was getting busy too. I needed a break from it all, so I did what anyone would do...packed up my life and moved to Germany.

Enjoying my first Bavarian meal of dumplings, sauerkraut, pretzels and warm potato salad. Carbs anyone?

In addition to a passion for baking and writing, I also love to travel. My wanderlust extends far beyond my budget for exploring, so I decided the best (and only) way to travel around Europe was to also have a job in Europe. I was lucky enough to land a job with the US Department of Defense working at an R&R hotel in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. I'm essentially living in the heart of the Bavarian Alps for the next year. I plan on making the most of my good fortune and travel as much as I can, and also sampling as much good food as I can in preparation for my future bakery. The goals of this travel/writing/food blog, besides providing hours of mindless entertainment for you, is to:

• Solidify menu items for a future food establishment
• Give restaurant reviews
• Talk about local cuisine and where to go to eat
• Give out some really tasty recipes
• Share stories about the horrors of living abroad

If you have any other ideas to make my blog cool enough to hang out with the popular kids, let me know! Follow me by clicking on the link on the upper-right hand corner of the page.