First Post!

Hello! I am finally introduced to the wold of blogging! Probably a few years late since I live in the stone age of technology (too many acronyms). But I am here now, and I should probably begin my introductory blog post with why I decided to join the technological race.

I graduated from Barnard in May and after four years of constant stress, and having a zillion things to do at any given time, I was finally able to slow down and take a deep breath.  For the first time in my life, I didn't have a reading list to (pretend to) struggle through or the constant reminder that Labor Day was once again creeping up on me.  I had something precious, something most native New Yorkers and grade-obsessed college students like myself don't even seem to understand: free time.  For the first few months, this lack of stress was absolute bliss; I had time to see friends, I wasn't biting my boyfriend's head off quite as much and certainly not with the same ferocity, and I was able to sit in front of the television and channel surf for hours without guilt. However, that began to change. I quickly realized that endless free time is really not all it's cracked up to be, and that watching 8 consecutive episodes of Millionaire Matchmaker is not a fulfilling career choice (who knew?). I needed something to focus on, some obsession to fill the void that had once been occupied by endless hours of reading, and preferably something I actually enjoyed. So I translated the greater part of my television watching career to reality, and began to make cooking my obsession.  My first order of business, being completely in love with Mario Batali and italian cooking in general, was to get a pasta machine.  Glossing over all of that drama, by the time I really started to get a hang of the pasta-making process, I began to notice a correlation between wheat consumption and my constant stomach aches. It wasn't until I visited my boyfriend's family and his sister said she was having similar problems, that I decided maybe it was time to try a different diet. Since then, I have been low-gluten, and for several years now I have been low-dairy.  This only created more challenges for me in the kitchen, but as an adventurous cook, I met these challenges head on and have begun my foray into gluten-free, dairy-free, low-fat cooking.

This brings me to my reason for starting this blog. After much complaining to my (extremely patient) boyfriend, that I had no purpose and I still couldn't figure out what I wanted to do with my life, I realized that maybe reflecting more on my life in the kitchen would lead me somewhere. For years, my aunt has been telling me to write down my recipes, and I never do. I always think I'll remember them, and I do for the most part, but I never seem to get the measurements quite right the second time, and I have yet to send her a single recipe. Well Deb, here you are. I am dedicating the start to my recipe collection to you--oh, and I promise I use eggs in my baking now.

I'm pretty sure this blog will be mostly food based since writing has never really been my thing, but I'm sure an anecdote or two about my many previous, and I am sure many future, cooking blunders will end up in here.  Well, lets get this thing started!

P.S. To those of you who aren't gluten-free, dairy-free or otherwise diet-challenged, don't worry.  First of all, my recipes never lack for flavor. And second, I will try to remember to put normal-people substitutions in, for those whose stomachs are not so finicky and who don't want to go out and buy xanthan gum and jowar flour just because they want to whip up a batch of cookies :P