The beginning...

So, I start here, from the beginning I suppose. My name is Ashley and I love food. My Grandmother Allie taught me how to cook as soon as I was able to reach the counter. Unfortunately growing up my Mom wasn't the best cook ever, but she worked hard for my brother and I and I don't blame her at all! In high school I started making dinner most nights, usually simple things, but as I grew up I learned to try to make more and more things. After high school I went to a community college to major in baking and pastry. I started working in kitchens when I was 18 starting at Universal Studio's Mythos and bouncing around to Planet Hollywood, Emeril's Tchoup Chop, and ending eventually at a Steakhouse called A Land Remembered. Working in restaurants taught me a lot about cooking.. but a lot about how much it sucks. I finally understood my grandmother's warnings that it wasn't going to be as I thought it would be.. and it wasn't. My love of food was destroyed thanks to rude and obnoxious cooks I worked with, and just simply the stress of being a line cook. Then my grandmother passed away in October of '07. It hit me rather hard because she was more like a second mother to me than a grandmother. I remember being at her house every weekend making dinner and laughing around the dinner table eating and playing cards. In January of '08 I left Florida and my cooking career for good.

So now I am a home cook, and not much of even that really. My husband Javier also worked in a few kitchens with me and also has a love of food. We have a lot of fun in the kitchen together cooking dinner and poking fun at each others mistakes. Over the last few weeks my love of food has started to explode even more. Its been almost 2 years now since I've left the kitchen and since the death of my grandmother and I'm really to bring cooking back in my life. Not as a career, but as a serious hobby.

I've started this blog to share recipes and tips with my friends and family, and well, anyone else who's interested I suppose. I hope y'all enjoy!