No, my name isn't really "Jane Doe". It's a name I chose for who I am in general , an unknown to the masses....just a regular "Jane Doe American", not a celebrity chef or restaurant cook, not a professional anything to do with the food/cooking industry.
I work full time outside the home, I am single and over 40. I have an extremely tight budget and struggle with the high costs of living as well as my mortgage like most of mid-income Americans do. I live in a small town, with your regular grocery stores and the Walmart Supercenters and Sam's clubs. I don't have access to that much in specialty foods like complete Asian Markets or Butchers who will cut your meats to order. Ask a butcher here to "trim the fat please" or grind a chosen cut of meat, and they will look at you like you're nutso then probably charge you for the time it took. ;-) And we don't have "fish mongers". We usually catch our own. There are many things called for in recipes that just can't be found where I live. Try to find Arugula in this town...ha! and some of the hard to find items are so costly that I just can't justify it on a recipe I haven't tested yet. So, there may be substitutions here and there out of pure necessity not out of taste preference.
I do absolutely love to cook and have been intrigued by it for as long as I can remember. I became hooked on Food TV and the Food Network programs, wondering with every worthwhile viewing if I could really do that at home. So, I decided it's time to do just that.
The idea of this blog is to try recipes shown us by professionals and TV cooking show hosts using their information and techniques and applying them in our own home kitchens. Will they really turn out the with same beautiful results? Are they really that easy? Do they really taste that good? Can we really do this at home without all of the fancy cookware, utensils and fancy equipment .... a staff of paid recipe testers who try the recipe in a huge kitchen before a show is aired? And, most importantly, how much will it cost me?
We don't see celebrity chefs' fumbles or disasters. You will see them here, as they happen and I will give my thoughts whether painful, joyful, or just satisfied. I most welcome your own thoughts, suggestions or ideas of improving methods or recipes. We all want to have success in our cooking trials, and you may have a technique or idea to share that will make someone elses' life easier!
In addition to giving estimated total costs of recipes, (the costs will be based on what I would pay for the ingredients in my area), I will also be keeping things interesting with my own recipe attempts and showing food related things along the way.
Welcome, and I hope you enjoy the site.
