I love being domestic.

Hi! So since I graduated from college, I have become more interested in cooking and baking. I constantly try new recipes, while trying to keep the ingredients under budget. It was so fabulous to get such fun kitchen toys for our wedding to stimulate this new passion. Coming from Italian Basque heritage, cooking seems to be in my blood, and I enjoy getting in touch with my roots in this way. A few years back I received the Magnolia Cupcake Baking Book and fell in love with baking from scratch! It is not any harder than baking from a box...it just takes a tiny bit more time.

Recently, I have begun baking my own bread and it is soooo fun, though I am not so consistent with the dough rising, etc. Working on it. Any tips would be helpful. :) One of my friends and co-workers from UCD is getting her RD/MS right now at Tufts and has been blogging about the experience. Right now she is doing a cookware giveaway and is featuring baguette pans at my request :) (one of my two breads of choice is french, the other, whole wheat). She has some great insights into the nutrition world and I am very impressed by her blog. Check it out here.

I am very excited to continue on this food journey! Last week I was Basque-inspired and made Leek Soup, Pimientos, Garbanzos, and Beef Stock! I felt like Superwoman and it was all really tasty! Other weeks I go for fun recipes from the cookbooks I have. I try to cook like that more often than opening a can of chili or making my standard college fare of pasta with olive oil, minced garlic, garlic sald, and parmesan (sometimes adding veggies or chicken)...though that is still the ol' standby. :)

I hope you'll check out Rach's blog and maybe enter the contest yourself!

Much love, me.