Welcome! Benvenuto!

Ahoy there!

I just wanted to write a quick post introducing myself and my hopes for this blog. My name is Grace and I am a 23 year old amature cook. As you can see from my photo, I am the palest, most ginger Italian you have probably seen. Well this is because, as the title of this blog suggests, I am Italian by default. I was adopted at birth by a first generation Italian mother and an umpteenth generation mixture of everything father. My mother's family is a mixture of Italian (my grandfather and his family was as fresh off the boat as one can get) and English by way of Canada. So as one can imagine my ginger ass sticks out like a sore thumb among my dark haired, brilliantly tanned family. Due to everyone asking where my red hair comes from and the Italian cooking skills that have seemed to have come to me, I always joke that I am Italian by default.

Now that you have way too much information about my family, I'd like to talk about this blog and cooking for a bit. I love food, always have, always will. I love everything about it; from the selection of ingredients, to the prep work, from the cooking to the eating, I enjoy it all. I grew up in my Nana's kitchen eating home cooked Americana comfort food. My parents took my sister and I to every ethnic restaurant on this side of the Mississippi, and as an adult and having disposable income to spend on cookbooks, I like to think I have a broad pallet and the ability to cook almost anything.

With this blog I'd like to chronicle my cooking adventures. I have been clipping, printing and writing down recipes for years and as such my bookshelves are covered in tattered, stained journals filled with all sorts of recipes and ideas. I want this blog to be a virtual bookshelf for all of my recipes and to share my work with a larger audience. I love sharing the fruits of my labor and I love having people to cook for and now I have you!

I hope you enjoy what I offer, share your recipes and adventures in the kitchen (both good and bad), and most of all, eat well!