It started as a favor...

The first Christmas I was unemployed, I made most of my Christmas gifts. Made, or did favors as gifts. One such favor was for my mother. She had been collecting recipes for years and they were scattered all over the first floor of her home – in a drawer, in cookbooks, in novels, in a folder next to her bills, in the basket where she kept coupons. Everywhere. So I found them all, sorted them, glued the little ones onto loose leaf paper, hole-punched the full-page ones, and put everything in a binder.

It took weeks.

The thing is huge.

In fact, it’s a behemoth.

The Behemoth

It’s bulging and all Mom does is keep adding to it. She’ll occasionally try something new (let me tell you, Martha Stewart’s roast chicken recipes are amazing), but mostly she just collects.

After I finished my mother’s, I went to work on my own binder. It’s significantly smaller, with fewer clippings and more photocopies. But it’s still bigger than it should be for someone who doesn’t actually cook that much. And with the addition of a Pinterest addiction, the virtual collection is growing, too.

My more humble Behemoth

I don’t want to become my mother.

I don’t want to be a … recipe hoarder.

I’ve seen those hoarding shows, this is a problem that can get out of control and before you know it you have a stack of cookbooks where the toilet paper should be.

So in an effort to use said recipes, try new things and avoid eating frozen pizza four nights a week, I’m starting this blog.

The goal is to try new things, find improvements and variations, and eat healthier as a secondary result. Unless I start making chocolate-covered, caramel-coated everything.

I shall strive to post three items a week, one of which will probably be an adult beverage. Because don’t they always look so good?

Now the tricky part: Where do I start?