The Recipes

Some heart raviolis for my love

Thought I’d use this first post to get a bit more detailed on how my love for cooking turned into new recipes and The Cheesy Weirdough.

Growing up my mother didn’t really care much for making dinner so we had the same few meals on rotation and the only thing I remember my dad making was microwaving a slice of cheese on leftover pasta. Needless to say the enjoyment of being in the kitchen was something I discovered truly on my own. It all started with a little pink television and a whole bunch of free time after graduating from college. It was my first real introduction into Food Network and cooking shows. It all looked so easy and delicious which prompted me to start cooking for myself more. Eventually I’d have ideas that weren’t quite a traditionally put together meal so I’d look for one online and sure enough there wasn’t a recipe that was exactly what I wanted so I’d just start cooking. Winging it essentially. I realized it was a creative outlet that I really enjoyed and what other type of art do you get to eat at the end?

Over the years I’ve tried to make all of the ‘fancy chef’ stuff like eggs benedict, bolognese, French onion soup and all the meals you’d order out because they aren’t worth the hassle of making them at home. After a while I started realizing there’d be random ingredients that would go bad because I only had one use for them. Similarly, I’d buy something at the grocery store because I had never heard of it and wanted to try it. Sure enough these specific perishables would all be shoved to the back of the fridge and stay there until expiring. Flash forward several years and I finally started to look in the fridge before going grocery shopping.

The majority of my recipes stem from a mindset of what do I already have on hand, how long do I have before it expires and what can we put together. My experience is this is not how everyone else approaches making dinner. I get asked all the time for a recipe but nope, that thing you just ate was because the produce was about to expire and the flavor profile was probably a craving I had in the moment. The idea of having to follow instructions to make a meal seems too rigid and after working all day in a world where the rules have to be followed, I decide to let my creativity takeover.

Baguettes!

I know how ironic this is about to sound but, you don’t need a recipe to make something fantastic. While I’m sitting here laughing at myself trying to launch a food and recipe blog, my ambition is that it inspires others to get creative in the kitchen. Which also means, my recipes are very adaptable and easily modified. If the flavor profile is not what your in the mood for then switch up the herbs and spices. If the recipe says ground turkey but you have beef, that’s fine. Not a fan of cooking under the broiler then sauté and or switch it to bake. The point of a recipe is not to follow strict rules because that can lead to feeling like you made a mistake if something is off. My approach is that recipes are guidelines and something to start with. There’ truly no wrong answer in the kitchen unless it’s moldy. Even burning something can be subjective (talking to you well done steak lovers).

I hope you stick around and continue following my journey. I have so many ideas for the future and am so excited to finally have a platform to share them. Most of all, I hope this inspires you to get creative in the kitchen and of course, stay weird.

Meagan